Jack Westin MCAT Podcast Ideal Gas Law and the MCAT
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Aug 12, 2022 In an engaging discussion, Azaii Calderón Muñiz, a Harvard medical student and MCAT educator, dives into the Ideal Gas Law's relevance for premed students. They explore how gases behave under various conditions and the differences between ideal and real gases. Azaii explains the significance of intermolecular forces and the Van der Waals equation. The conversation also links gas laws to real-life scenarios, including climate change impacts and breathing challenges. Listeners gain insights into MCAT strategies and essential equations.
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Ideal Gas Assumptions And Their Limits
- The ideal gas model treats molecules as point particles with elastic collisions and no volume or attractions.
- These assumptions make PV = nRT useful but break down at high pressures, low temperatures, or with large molecules.
Study Exceptions, Not Just Plug-And-Chug
- Expect MCAT questions to probe exceptions to PV = nRT rather than simple plug-and-chug problems.
- Prepare to reason qualitatively about attractive/repulsive forces and molecular size effects on pressure and volume.
How Van Der Waals Corrects Ideal Gas Law
- The van der Waals equation corrects PV = nRT by adding terms for intermolecular attraction (a) and finite molecular volume (b).
- It replaces P with P + a n^2/V^2 and V with V - nB to model real-gas behavior.