What would happen if a scuba tank (a rigid, sealed gas cylinder) heats up?
A.
The pressure exerted by the gas in the tank would increase.
B.
The size of the gas particles in the tank would increase.
C.
The number of particles in the tank would increase.
D.
The density of the gas in the tank would increase
A. The pressure exerted by the gas in the tank would increase.
A. The pressure exerted by the gas in the tank would increase.
The answer to this question is A. The pressure exerted by the gas in the tank would increase.
To understand why this happens, we can apply the ideal gas law, which describes the relationship between temperature, pressure, and volume of a gas. The ideal gas law is given by the equation PV = nRT, where P is the pressure, V is the volume, n is the number of gas particles, R is the gas constant, and T is the temperature in Kelvin.
When the scuba tank heats up, the temperature (T) increases. According to the ideal gas law, if all other variables (such as the volume and the number of particles) remain constant, an increase in temperature would cause an increase in pressure (P). This is because as gas particles gain kinetic energy from the increased temperature, they move faster and collide more frequently with the walls of the tank, exerting a greater force and increasing the pressure.
Therefore, when a scuba tank (a rigid, sealed gas cylinder) heats up, the pressure exerted by the gas inside the tank will increase.