Question

A sealed flexible container held 250 mL of a substance. The volume of the container was then decreased to 100 mL without any matter escaping. What must be true about the matter in the container before the containers volume was changed?

Answer 1

The substance in the container remains the same in quantity but becomes more concentrated when volume is decreased. This is a principle of the Gas Laws in physics, specifically Boyle's law.

Step-by-step explanation:

This is a question related to the properties of gases in physics. One property of gases is that they are easily compressible. This means their volume can be decreased while the number of molecules remains the same, provided the gas doesn't escape the container. So, in the given scenario, when the volume was reduced from 250 mL to 100 mL, the quantity of the substance (in terms of the number of molecules) inside the container didn't change. However, the concentration of the substance in the container would have increased due to the decrease in volume.

This is aligned with the Gas Laws, particularly Boyle's law which states that the pressure of a gas tends to increase as the volume of the container decreases, given the temperature is held constant.

Learn more about Properties of gases