Computational Thinking in Science and Math
VI - The Ideal Gas Law
We did a lot of things in the previous 5 lessons:
- We observed a macro-level gas phenomenon (air duster can) and we tried to reason about the underlying micro-level events such as:
- What is a gas made up of?
- How do gas particles move in space?
- How do gas particles interact with each other and the walls of the container?
- We tried to qualitatively understand how micro-level interactions among gas particles lead to an important macro-level property: pressure.
- What is kinetic molecular theory?
- What is an ideal gas?
- We qualitatively and quantitatively explored the relationship between three variables and gas pressure: number of particles, gas temperature, container volume.
- How can we use computational models to study the behavior of gasses?
- How can we conduct computational experiments to: collect data, analyze data, and develop mathematical models?
- How do we validate our mathematical models?
- In what ways our mathematical models help us reason about real-world phenomena that involves gas pressure?
In this final lesson, we will reflect on our hard work and try to put together all three mathematical models, as well as our understanding of the behavior of gas particles, to develop a coherent theory of ideal gases.
