The Adventures of Gabe: Gas Laws!

Nakshatra Londhe, Gabe Nowak, and Tyler Sunahara

High School Students

March 2023

*Disclaimer: The following story is intended for comedic purposes and does not reflect the opinions of the authors. There may be some questionable parts, so the suggested age is 15+. There are references to alcohol and mild violence, so if this makes you uncomfortable, do not read this story. Any names mentioned in the story are extremely dramatized and are not factual to the people this story discusses. Finally, some grammatical errors are present for comedic purposes and are intentional.

It was a normal day for Gabe when he woke up in the morning. Frightened from his horrifying dream with The Batman That Laughs, he inhaled a deep breath of air, filling his lungs to calm himself. All of the sudden, he remembered he left his favorite basketball outside in the freezing weather. After retrieving it, he noticed it was much smaller in size than yesterday when he was playing with it. Before leaving for school, Gabe desired a pastry containing high levels of sugar and simple carbohydrates, also called a cookie, from the fridge. After preparing to leave for school, he hopped on his bike, only to discover that the tire was flat! Fortunately, he found his trusty tire pump, Fredrico del Chavez; and pushed and pulled up and down to inflate the tire. After filling the tire he chose to ride in his truck instead. On his way to school, he saw his friends from the pool party and accidentally ran through a red light. The alcohol transport truck belonging to the Japanese Yakuza crossed the intersection and rammed into his truck, but luckily, his airbags deployed in time, saving his beautiful face. However, his truck flipped on its side, and diesel began leaking out the side. Taking a deep breath of air, the familiar aroma of Jack Daniels 1979 Proof 82 (a type of whiskey) wafted into his nose, and then the shocking smell of gasoline hit his sinuses. Gabe limped the rest of the way to school and wandered into his AP Underwater Basket Weaving class. The Yakuza were extremely frustrated that Gabe ruined their transport truck and wanted to hunt him down. Seeing his best buds Slick Shady John Hickenlooper, the political flim-flam artist, Thailer, Lev the Chaos Demon, and Naekshaetrae, Gabe explained his predicament with the harlots and the Japanese Yakuza. They offered their condolences, but then an alarm sounded off! The Yakuza had arrived for Gabe!! Thinking quickly, Gabe found an aerosol container and Naekshaetrae handed him a lighter. As the Yakuza filed into the pool, Gabe heated the container and chucked at them. Unfortunately, Naekshaetrae was caught in the crossfire and died a tragic death. His remains were never found. One benefit from this series of mishaps, however, was that Gabe earned the sophistication point in his underwater basket weaving by saying he did a “More betterer job at defending the school than Naekshaetrae.” Furthermore, consequently, he, in addition, also, subsequently, attended his chemistry class and learned about the fascinating world of gas laws!!

The first gas law Gabe learned about from his patient chemistry teacher was Avogadro’s Law. Avogadro’s law states that under controlled temperature and pressure, the volume divided by the number of molecules will result in the same constant when the volume or number of molecules changes. The equation he jotted down was: V1/n1 = V2/n2 where V stands for volume and n stands for number of moles. Gabe realized he had lived this earlier in the day. When he breathed air that morning, his lungs increased in volume as the number of molecules in his lungs increased. Similarly, when he let his breath out, the number of molecules in his lungs decreased as well as the volume.

The second gas law Gabe learned from the series of events that occurred that day was Charles’s Law. Charles’s Law states that the volume occupied by a fixed amount of gas is directly proportional to its absolute temperature, if the pressure and number of molecules remain constant. This is shown by the equation V1/T1=V2/T2. This law is exemplified by Gabe stupidly leaving his basketball outside as it shows the relationship between temperature and volume. It shows how as the temperature decreases, so does the volume, explaining why the basketball was smaller when he left it outside in freezing conditions compared to the basketball a day before. After bringing his basketball back into the warmth of his house, the basketball reinflated itself as the temperature had increased.

After that, Gabe discovered, through the process of refrigeration, how the Combined Gas Law works, and its uses in everyday life. The combined gas law observes that the ratio of the product of pressure and volume and the absolute temperature of a gas is equal to a constant, and can therefore be used to calculate pressure, volume, or temperature, given the other variables. He quickly observed this and decided to commit to paper, transcribing it as (P1*V1)/T1=(P2*V2)/T2, where P stands for pressure, V stands for volume, and T stands for temperature. This law observes that the ratio between pressure multiplied by volume and temperature remains constant between all gasses and their variables. Refrigerators use this ratio to maintain the temperatures inside of them by using heating coils that release heat by changing pressures in order to dispel heat.

Moreover, when Gabe was filling up his bicycle tire, he indirectly learned about the extraordinary Boyle’s law, discovered by a guy whose last name was Boyle. Boyle’s law is a relation concerning the compression and expansion of a gas at constant pressure. It states that the pressure (p) of a given quantity of gas varies inversely with its volume (v) at constant temperature. The equation for this gas law is P1V1=P2V2. Gabe saw this law when he pumped his tire full of air. This is because when you pump air into a tire, the gas molecules inside the tire get compressed and packed closer together. This increases the pressure of the gas, and it starts to push against the walls of the tire.

Another law Gabe realized he experienced was the Ideal Gas Law. The ideal gas law is best expressed as an equation, but in words, the pressure, volume, temperature, number of molecules, and the constant R are all ordered in some way to find one of the unknowns. The equation can be written in many ways, but the most common way is PV=nRT where P=pressure (atmospheres), V=volume(typically liters), n=(number of mols), T=temperature (Kelvin), and R is the constant (in this equation, it is 0.08206 (L*atm)/(mol*K)). When Gabe crashed his car with the transport truck, his airbags deployed. Vehicle airbags work using the ideal gas law. By reacting sodium azide with excess heat, a large amount of nitrogen gas is produced. The ideal gas law says the two sides of the equation have to balance, so adding moles of nitrogen gas forces the volume of the bags to increase dramatically. Also, as the bag was kept under extreme pressure when the bag inflates, the pressure is released, allowing the inflated airbag to deflate before Gabe’s immaculate head hits anything that could hurt him.

The next gas law Gabe understood was Graham’s Law of Effusion. Graham’s Law states that the rate of diffusion or effusion of a gas is inversely proportional to the square root of its molecular weight. He realized that the lighter the molecular weight of a gas is, the faster it will diffuse. The equation his teacher demonstrated was:

(rate of effusion of gas 1)/(rate of effusion of gas 2) = (molar mass gas 2)^(1/2)/(molar mass gas 1)^(1/2).

Since he now knew this concept, Gabe recognized that was why he smelled the alcohol first - it diffused faster. Alcohol or ethanol has a molar mass of approximately 46.07 g/mol, and whiskey specifically has a molar mass of 156.22. Diesel gas can have a molecular weight of 150-250 g/mol, so in this instance, it is probable the diesel’s chemical composition weighed more since Gabe smelled the whiskey first. Assuming the highest possible value, Gabe found that whiskey effuses ≈ 1.3 times faster diesel gas.

The final gas law Gabe learned about saved his life and took Naekshaetrae’s life. Gay-Lussac’s law relates pressure and temperature together in a direct relationship. The higher the temperature, the more pressure in a closed container, and the lower the temperature, the lower the pressure. The equation Gabe wrote down was P1/T1=P2/T2 where P stands for pressure and T stands for temperature (in Kelvin). When Gabe heated the aerosol container to defend himself, he increased the pressure to a point where it was forced to explode, protecting the school. If the temperature had been decreased, instead of exploding, the container’s pressure would have decreased and been useless to Gabe.

Gabe could not wait to retire to his bedroom and sleep off the events of the day. Hopefully, tomorrow would be much better!