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Laser Measurement of the Speed of Sound in Gases: A Novel Approach to Determining Heat Capacity Ratios and Gas Composition

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J. Clayton Baum

Department of Chemistry, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901

R. N. Compton and Charles S. Feigerle

Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996

J. Chem. Educ., 2008, 85 (11), p 1565

DOI: 10.1021/ed085p1565

Publication Date (Web): November 1, 2008

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

The speed of sound is measured in several gases using a pulsed laser to create a micro-spark on a carbon rod and a microphone connected to a digital oscilloscope to measure the time-of-flight of the resulting shockwave over a known distance. These data are used to calculate the heat capacity ratios (C_p /C_V ) of the gases and the composition of a binary mixture of gases. The application of lasers to the measurement of gas properties provides students with a simple, accurate, and direct, state-of-the-art method for obtaining thermodynamic data. As demonstrated for CCl₄ in nitrogen gas, the method is capable of determining the vapor pressure of a liquid–vapor equilibrium in another gas.

Keywords (Audience):

Upper-Division Undergraduate

Keywords (Domain):

Laboratory Instruction

Keywords (Pedagogy):

Hands-On Learning / Manipulatives

Keywords (Subject):

Gases

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This article has been cited by 1 ACS Journal articles (1 most recent appear below).

Substituting an Inexpensive Function Generator for the Pulsed Laser in the Experiment “Laser Measurement of the Speed of Sound in Gases”
Mark G. Epstein, Matthew W. Laszlo, and Steven G. Mayer
Journal of Chemical Education2010 87 (12), 1414-1415
- Substituting an Inexpensive Function Generator for the Pulsed Laser in the Experiment “Laser Measurement of the Speed of Sound in Gases”
  Mark G. Epstein, Matthew W. Laszlo, and Steven G. Mayer
  Journal of Chemical Education2010 87 (12), 1414-1415
  We present an adaptation to an experiment previously published in this Journal. The experiment was designed to determine the heat capacity ratios of gases by measuring the speed of sound using a modified Kundt’s tube. The experiment yielded excellent ...
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