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Altius COVID 4
Justine_5420
#1 Posted : Friday, July 31, 2020 4:39:00 PM
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Hello,

Altius COVID 4 question 29 is an application of the ideal gas law - however, looking at the Altius solution, I don't think I would be able to finish this question and would probably mark it and move on. In class, Mike taught us to use STP parameters to make our PV=nRT equations a bit easier. Would Mike's method work with this question? If it can, could you please walk me through it?

Thank you
INSTR_Katerina_102
#2 Posted : Tuesday, August 04, 2020 9:34:49 PM
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Hi Justine,

Because STP is defined as 0 Celsius and 1 atm, it is a bit far off as an approximation for this question, as the answers are pretty close together mathematically (C is 3.36 x 10^-2 and D is 1.68 x 10^-2).

However, I would say that this answer provided in the Altius is pretty unnecessarily complicated. I would say it's definitely more complicated than what I would expect for the MCAT

They try to get the atm down to 0.95 atm, what I would have done instead on a back of the envelope calculation is:

P = 1 atm (overestimate)
V = 0.4 L (underestimate)
T = 25 C = 298 K = 300 K (overestimate)
R = 0.1 L*atm/mol*K (overestimate)

PV = nRT ;

n = PV/RT = (1 atm)(0.4 L)/(300 K)*(0.08 L*atm/mol*K)

= (0.4)/30 mol --round 0.4 down to 0.3
= 3/300 mol
= 1 x 10^-2 mol

Only D matches my answer, and it makes sense that it is slightly smaller because I rounded down in my answer - a lot of my estimates cancel out otherwise.

I hope this helps, please let me know if you need clarification!

Katt
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