Question
Lab 5: Gas Laws and Diving
Part I: Pressure Chamber Experiment
1. Visit the website http://jersey.uoregon.edu/vlab/Piston/index.html and read the
"Experimental instructions." I recommend printing out the website page, so that you do
not have to scroll up and down to view the pressure chamber and the instructions.
2. For this lab, you will need to complete the "First experimental procedure" and the
"Second experimental procedure" as explained on the "Welcome to the Pressure
Chamber!" website.
3. For each of the two e mini-experiments, be sure to record a) the exact steps you
followed, and b) your detailed observations.
4. For the "First experimental procedure," make sure to include the following website
prompts and responses in your report:
• "What is the relationship between pressure and temperature at constant volume?" and
• "Using this data, predict at what temperature the pressure will exceed 10 units"
5. For the "Second experimental procedure," make sure to include the following website
prompt and response in your report:
•
"From the form of the plot, can you guess the relation between pressure and volume when the
temperature is held constant."
7. To conclude Part I of your lab report, please discuss which Gas Laws were observed
during these two experiments. Please be as specific as you can!
Part II: The Gas Laws and Diving
8. Visit the website http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/technology.html , which is
maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). After
reading the brief “Technology” page that appears, click on “Diving” and read the
information that appears.
9. To assist you in answering the response prompts below, please also click on and
read the three links on the right side of the “Diving” page (“Scuba”, “Technical”, and
“Aquarius”).
• What pressures are scuba cylinders designed to withstand? Why?
• What is the purpose of the demand regulator on a scuba diving cylinder?
Explain this purpose in terms of a specific gas law!
• Again using specific gas laws, explain why deep “technical” dives require
decompression “stops” before coming all the way up to the surface of the water.
•
What is nitrox? How is it different from the air we typically breathe? Why is it
used in diving?
• What is “saturation diving”? What are the advantages of saturation diving to
oceanic researchers, or “aquanauts”?