Deviation from the Ideal Gas Law
▶︎ Watch it animatedinteractive step-through · ~3 min · optionalThe ideal gas law assumes particles have no volume and no attractions — assumptions that fail for real gases at high pressure (particle volume becomes significant) and low temperature (intermolecular attractions dominate). Under those conditions, measured behavior deviates from what PV = nRT predicts.
The trap is misattributing the deviation — blaming the wrong condition, or reading the particle model incorrectly. Deviation grows precisely where the ideal assumptions break: crowd the particles (high P) or slow them down (low T) and their real volume and attractions start to matter.
The work
3 ways in · any order
Lesson
Real vs Ideal Gases
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Real gases deviate at high pressure and low temperature, where particle volume and attractions matter. The lesson ties each ideal assumption to the condition that breaks it, then closes with a ten-scenario check.
Diagnostic
10-item topic check
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Ten items on real-gas deviations: identifying when the ideal assumptions fail, and correctly attributing deviations to particle volume (high P) or attractions (low T).
Targeted Practice
Drill a single misconception
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Pick one of the failure modes you missed and drill it on its own. The round is adaptive: two correct in a row clears the misconception and moves you to the next.