Real gases – as opposed to a perfect or ideal gas – exhibit properties that cannot be explained entirely using the ideal gas law. To understand the behaviour of real gases, the following must be taken into account:
- compressibility effects;
- variable specific heat capacity;
- van der Waals forces;
- non-equilibrium thermodynamic effects;
- issues with molecular dissociation and elementary reactions with variable composition.
For most applications, such a detailed analysis is unnecessary, and the ideal gas approximation can be used with reasonable accuracy. On the other hand, real-gas models have to be used near the condensation point of gases, near critical points, at very high pressures, and in other less usual cases.
Famous quotes containing the words real and/or gas:
“Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Shielded, what sorts of life are stirring yet:
Legs lagged like drains, slippers soft as fungus,
The gas and grate, the old cold sour grey bed.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)