Boyle's Law Calculator

Introduction

Boyle’s law explains the behavior of gases. It gives us the relationship that exists among the physical forces such as volume, pressure, and temperature.

This law is introduced in 1662 by Robert Boyle, an Anglo-Irish physicist, and chemist. Hence, it is named after him. This law is also called as Mariotte's law or Boyle–Mariotte law.

Boyle’s law defines the relationship between the pressure of a gas and the volume of the container it is stored in.

Definition

Boyle’s is defined as, "within a closed system when temperature and quantity of gas stored are constant, a given mass of ideal gas exerts a pressure that is inversely proportional to the volume that the gas occupies."

This law can be mathematically represented as:

Stating it in simple terms:

Boyle’s law states that at a constant temperature, the pressure of a gas increases as the volume of the container it is stored in decreases.

When a gas is heated, the volume of the gas increases; when the volume of the gas is decreased or compressed, its temperature increases; the temperature of the gas decreases when it is allowed to expand.

Discovery

Boyle was trying some experiments on the properties of vacuum and air, using a vacuum pump. It was during these experiments when he was using a J-shaped glass tube which had little air at its tip. When he tried to alter the weight of air using mercury, he noticed that the air space which was at the tip of the glass tube curve became smaller. Thus, deepening this observation. Finally, he discovered that when pressure on a gas increases, the volume of the gas shrinks.

Applications

In modern day to day life, there are many applications where we use Boyle’s law in a variety of fields:

• Transportation – Boyles law is used in the operation of steam engines, diesel engines, vehicle tires.
• Medicine – The basic need, the syringe, uses the principle of Boyles law.
• Cosmetics – In aerosols such as a perfume bottle or a deodorant spray where gas is stored under high pressures.
• Food Industry – In storage of aerated drinks such as soda in cans.

Fun Facts about Boyle’s law

Do you know!!! There are plenty of examples of Boyle’s law in the things that we do daily.

For example, breathing! Yes, the way we breathe or take the air into our lungs is a clear picture of Boyle’s law. Want to know how?

• When we breathe in air, we are drawing the air into lungs and contracting the respiratory muscle and thus increasing the volume of the chest which again decreases the pressure in our chest.
• Similarly, when we breathe out, that is during exhalation, the respiratory muscles contract and decreasing the size of our chest. Thus reducing the volume of the lungs and increasing the pressure inside them. When we say that pressure inside the lungs is high, it is even higher than outside atmospheric pressure and thus we can move the air out from our lungs using exhalation.

Another example where we are applying Boyle’s law is in “Scuba Diving”. The techniques which scuba divers use to ascend descend and breathe under waters holds as good examples of applications of Boyle’s law.

• Ascent: When a diver ascends, he will have to release the excess of air from his buoyancy control device (BCD). This is because, during the process of ascend, the pressure of water surrounding him decreases, and the air in his BCD expands. If he does not release excess air from BCD, he will lose control over his buoyancy because of the air expansion.
• Descent: Inversely when a diver descends, the pressure of water surrounding him increases, and the air in his ears gets compressed. He will have to equalize thus created pressure in his ears to avoid ear pain which can lead to an ear injury called ear barotrauma.

Besides, the above the rules to have safe diving are derived from Boyle’s law calculations. Some of them are hereunder:

• Breath should not be held underwater – In scuba, when a diver holds his breath underwater during ascending to an area having lesser water pressure, his lungs will expand trapping the air according to Boyle's Law. This phenomenon can lead to an injury to the diver's lungs causing pulmonary barotrauma.
• Ascend Slowly – During Scuba, diver's body underwater tends to absorb nitrogen gas in compressed form. When he ascends to a depth which has lesser water pressure, nitrogen gas absorbed by him expands. Hence a diver has to ascend slow enough so that his body gets time to eliminate the expanding nitrogen gas. If not, it leads to the formation of tiny bubbles in his tissues and blood and causes decompression sickness.

Thus the discovery of Boyle’s law leads a path to great inventions which are now intertwined to the survival of human life.

How to use CalculatorHut’s Boyle’s Law calculator?

Boyle’s law is widely used in many physics calculations. As the numerical value of pressure and volume most times contains decimal values or may be in different units, CalculatorHut’s Boyle’s law calculator becomes very handy for you!

All that you need to do is enter the values of known variables in the right hand and left-hand side of Boyle’s law equation. On clicking ‘Calculate’, CalculatorHut’s Boyle’s law calculator gives you instantaneous results. It’s super cool and easy.

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