Kinetic Molecular Theory (KMT) helps us understand how gases behave, especially when we compare ideal gases to real gases.

Ideal Gases:

• According to KMT, ideal gases are made up of tiny particles.
• These particles don’t take up space and only interact when they bump into each other.
• This allows us to use something called the ideal gas law, which is written as $PV=nRT$.
• Because of this, we can predict how things like pressure, volume, and temperature will stay the same.
• KMT tells us that gas particles move around randomly and hit each other a lot, spreading energy evenly among all the particles.

Real Gases:

• Real gases don’t always follow these ideal conditions, especially when the pressure is high or the temperature is low.
• In these cases, the size of the gas particles matters, and the forces between them do too.
• Here’s what KMT tells us about real gases:
  • Volume of Particles: Real gas molecules take up space, which goes against the idea that gas particles have no volume.
  • Intermolecular Forces: The forces that attract or push away gas molecules become important, changing how gases behave compared to what we expect.

Behavior Prediction:

• Understanding how real gases differ helps us predict things like condensation and changes in states (like gas turning into liquid).

Applications in Engineering:

• In engineering, it’s important to know the limits of the ideal gas law.
• Many engineering tasks involve gases in situations where they don’t act ideally.
• This requires us to make adjustments using real gas laws or the van der Waals equation, which gives us a better understanding of how gases work.

In short, KMT helps us see the differences between ideal and real gases. While KMT is a solid way to understand gas behavior, we need to consider the interactions and space that real gases have for a complete picture.