Question

The temperature, T. of a given mass of gas varies inversely with its volume,V. The temperature of 500 cm3 of a certain gas is 2.5 Celsius. What will the temperature be when it is compressed to a volume of 100cm3

160 c
12.5 c
2500 c
1250 c

I think it's either B or C.

Answer 1

V T = k
*** IF *** I assume this is true then:

500 * 2.5 = k = 1250
so
100 T = 1250
T = 12.5 C

I guess that is the answer they want, but in fact V T = constant ONLY if you use degrees KELVIN which is degrees C + 273

so really
500 * 275.5 = k = 137,750
so
100 T = 137,750
T = 1377.5 Kelvin
= 1104 Centigrade

Answer 2

By the way, that would be impossible without changing the pressure as well.

Answer 3

I got a different problem: same words but 90 cm^3 with 25 degrees Celcius and what will it be when compressed to 20 cm^3. I figured out that the numbers are in relation to one another. So I figured out the answer is 6 because the number shrunk, 90 to 20 is almost dividing by 5, same with 25 it is almost divided by 5. That's how I got to my answer, it might be wrong but that's the logic I used

Answer 4

OK so I used Damon's strategy it is more likely to be the right way to do it because I got 112.5 and that's an answer choice. So is the formula (a*b)/c
where a, b, and c are the three terms in order in the word problem?