Article
Article
Avogadro's law
Article By:
Waddington, Thomas C. Formerly, Department of Chemistry, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom.
Last reviewed:October 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.066050
The principle that equal volumes of all gases and vapors, under the same conditions of temperature and pressure, contain an identical number of molecules; also known as Avogadro's hypothesis. From Avogadro's law the converse follows that equal numbers of molecules of any gases under identical conditions occupy equal volumes. Therefore, under identical physical conditions the gram-molecular weights of all gases occupy equal volumes. Avogadro's law is not strictly obeyed by real gases at ordinary temperatures and pressures, although the deviations are only slight. At high pressures the deviations may be large. Avogadro's law can be shown to follow theoretically from the simple kinetic theory of gases. See also: Gas; Kinetic theory of matter
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