Charles's law

Charles's Law, also called the law of volumes, is a rule in science that explains how the volume of a gas changes when its temperature changes. The law says that if the pressure and the amount of gas stay the same, the volume of the gas will increase when the temperature goes up, and decrease when the temperature goes down. This works only if the temperature is measured in Kelvin, a special temperature scale used in science.[1] The law was discovered in the late 1700s by a French scientist named Jacques Charles. He found that when a gas is heated, it takes up more space, and when it is cooled, it takes up less space.[2] Even though Charles did not publish his findings, another scientist named Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac confirmed them in 1802 and gave credit to Charles.[3][4] Because of this, the law is sometimes called the Charles–Gay-Lussac law.[5]

Charles's law is written in math like this:

This means that volume (V) is directly proportional to temperature (T) when pressure and the amount of gas do not change. The numbers 1 and 2 refer to two different sets of conditions. If you make a graph of volume versus temperature, you get a straight line. If you follow this line down to where the volume would be zero, it points to a very cold temperature called absolute zero (0 Kelvin or –273.15°C), where gas particles would stop moving.[1]

Charles's law is very important in understanding how gases behave. It is part of the larger ideal gas law, along with Boyle's law and Avogadro's law. These laws help scientists understand and predict how gases will act under different conditions. This law has many practical uses. For example, it explains how hot air balloons work. When the air inside the balloon is heated, it expands and becomes less dense than the cooler air outside. This makes the balloon rise. Charles’s law is also used in engineering, weather forecasting, and the design of machines that use gases, like engines and gas storage systems.[6]

While Charles's law works best with ideal gases, it is also a good approximation for real gases in everyday situations. At very high pressures or very low temperatures, real gases do not behave exactly like the law predicts, because gas particles attract each other and take up space.[7] Still, under normal conditions, Charles’s law is very useful and is taught in both basic and advanced science classes.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chang, Raymond; Goldsby, Kenneth A. (2016). Chemistry (12th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 978-0-07-802151-0.
  2. ↑ Gillispie, Charles Coulston; Holmes, Frederic Lawrence; American Council of Learned Societies (1981). Dictionary of scientific biography : [Vols. 3 & 4]. Internet Archive. New York : Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-16962-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  3. ↑ Xavier, Bataille. "Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac : la loi de dilatation des gaz". FranceArchives. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
  4. ↑ Holmes, Frederic Lawrence (1985). Lavoisier and the chemistry of life: an exploration of scientific creativity. Wisconsin publications in the history of science and medicine. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-09980-0.
  5. ↑ Partington, J. R. (1989). A short history of chemistry (3rd ed., rev. and enl ed.). New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-65977-0.
  6. ↑ Sonntag, Richard Edwin; Borgnakke, C.; Van Wylen, Gordon J.; Van Wylen, Gordon J. (2003). Fundamentals of thermodynamics (6th ed.). New York: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-15232-3.
  7. ↑ Thornton, Stephen T.; Marion, Jerry B. (2008). Classical dynamics of particles and systems (5. ed., international student ed., [Nachdr.] ed.). Belmont, Calif.: Thomson, Brooks-Cole. ISBN 978-0-534-40896-1.


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