Discussion: Gas Application

Image of six rainbow colored hot air balloons at various heights over a field of green grass in a cloudy sunlit sky.

Identify a scientific industry that uses gases – maybe find something in your future field of study (i.e. medicine, mechanical engineering, molecular biology, astronomy, culinary arts, chemical synthesis, etc.). Do some research on that industry and how they make use of gases.

  • In five sentences, summarize one way that gases are crucial to this field. Make sure to identify the most important of the specific gases used.
  • Then in at least one additional sentence, relate the use of gases in this industry to your new knowledge about the factors in the ideal gas law. (For example, microbiologists use autoclave chambers to sanitize and kill bacteria at very high pressures, and because of the relationship between pressure and temperature, the high pressure means that the temperature doesn’t have to get prohibitively hot to have the same effect on the gas in the chamber.)