The gas laws are a group of laws that govern the behaviour of gases by providing relationships between the following:
- The volume occupied by a gas.
- The pressure exerted by a gas on the walls of its container.
- The absolute temperature of the gas.
- The amount of gaseous substance (or) the number of moles of gas.
The gas laws were developed towards the end of the 18th century by numerous scientists (after whom, the individual laws are named). The five gas laws are:
- Boyle’s Law, which provides a relationship between the pressure and the volume of a gas.
- Charles’s Law, which provides a relationship between the volume occupied by a gas and the absolute temperature.
- Gay-Lussac’s Law, which provides a relationship between the pressure exerted by a gas on the walls of its container and the absolute temperature associated with the gas.
- Avogadro’s Law, which provides a relationship between the volume occupied by a gas and the amount of gaseous substance.
- The Combined Gas Law (or the Ideal Gas Law), which can be obtained by combining the four laws listed above.
