Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-b-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/paper-2/section-c/c11/isotherms-and-excluded-volume/solution
Past exam of the physics B course of the University of Cambridge 2017 Paper 2 Section C C11 Isotherms and excluded volume Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
For the given one-mole model,At fixed positive temperature its isotherm is an ideal-gas hyperbola shifted right by : pressure diverges as and tends to zero as . Higher temperatures give higher pressure at any fixed allowed volume.
For positive , the volume is the effective volume available to molecular motion. Thus describes excluded-volume repulsion or an effective incompressible molecular core. It is a molar volume in this one-mole equation, not necessarily the literal sum of molecular geometric volume. Setting recovers the ideal gas law. No attractive-energy term is included.
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