David left his basketball outside overnight. At 1am the volume of air within the ball was 1.2m^3 and the outdoor temperature was 5 degrees Celsius. At 3am the temperature was -7 degrees Celsius. What is the volume of air inside the ball at 3am?
For this question we solve it using Charles’ Law. Charles’ law states that the product of volume and temperature gives a constant value. This is illustrated by VT=C. This means that volume and temperature are inversely proportional to each other. In simpler terms this means that as volume decreases the temperature will increase and vice versa. We can use this to solve questions like the above. It is important to note in questions involving Charles’ law that temperature MUST be in Kelvin instead of degrees Celsius. To convert degrees to kelvin we add 273.V1/T1= V2/T21.2/(5+273)=V2/(-7+273)1.2/278= V2/266V2=(1.2/278) x 266V2=1.148201V2=1.14 m3
