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How to find speed of carbon dioxide?

At a certain tempature, the speed of oxygen molecules is 0.082 m/s. What is the speed of carbon dioxide at the same tempature?

I was gone for a few days and I need help catching up on chemistry.

1 Answer

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Use Graham's law, which is derived from the fact that at the same temperature, the gases will have the same average kinetic energies.

    Basically: (speed of A)/(speed of B) = [(mass of B)/(mass of A)]^(1/2)

    So in this case, (speed of CO2)/(0.082 m/s) = (32.00/44.01)^(1/2)

    and thus speed of CO2 = 0.070 m/s. A slower speed is expected since CO2 has more mass than O2, and therefore must have a lower velocity if they are to have the same average kinetic energy.

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