What are some examples of Boyles law in everyday life?

Boyle’s law is a very important gas law, which helps us closely understand the interrelation between the physical forces of pressure, volume, and temperature. In this article, we will look at a few examples of where this law comes into play in our daily lives.

Did You Know?
When Robert Boyle started his studies and research, he had a wish list of creating 24 inventions, which included the prolongation of life, recovery of youth, art of flying, the ability to live and function under water for extended periods of time, curing wounds from a distance, transplantation of organs, attainment of gigantic proportions, transmutation of metals, etc., most of which have been fulfilled today.

In the year 1662, physicist Robert Boyle propounded the Boyle’s law, which stated that the pressure and volume of a gas were inversely proportionate when its temperature was kept constant. In other words, at a constant temperature, when the volume of a gas goes up, the pressure goes down, while the volume drops when the pressure rises. The equation of this phenomenon, V1/V2=P2/P1 (at constant temperature), where V1 is the initial volume, V2 is the modified volume, P1 is the starting pressure, and P2 is the modified pressure, is nowadays explained as Boyle’s Law, and is an important part of the ideal gas law. This law can be observed everywhere in our daily lives, in the mechanisms of several everyday objects. As such, let us look at a few examples of the Boyle’s law in real life.

Applications of Boyle’s Law

Scuba Diving: It is common knowledge amongst scuba divers that, when attempting to surface out of deep waters, it is extremely essential that the ascent has to be very slow. This is because, as a diver moves deeper underwater, the pressure on the body begins to increase. Due to this, the volume of nitrogen gas decreases and gets concentrated in the bloodstream. When the diver starts his return journey to the surface, the pressure reduces, and the nitrogen bubbles in the body begin to expand and return to their normal volume. If the diver does not ascend slowly, or use a depressurization chamber, the nitrogen bubbles will return to their normal volume too fast, and the blood will turn foamy. This often causes blood vessels, bladders, cells, and membranes to rupture, and cause the spaces between the divers joints to expand, causing the diver to bend over and experience excruciating pain. This is why deep-water fish die when they are brought to the surface. As you can see, it is important to regulate the volume of nitrogen, according to Boyle’s law, by adjusting the pressure.

You can also easily see this law in action if you look at the air bubbles that are blown out by a diver. The bubbles tend to expand in size as they rise upward, due to the reducing pressure.

Vehicle Tires: While filling air in the tire of a vehicle, you will notice that the air pressure is kept to around 30 – 35 PSI (pound force per square inch). As you push air into the tire, the increasing pressure reduces the volume of the air molecules by packing them together. The pressure in the pump has to always be higher than that which is inside the tire in order for more air to be pushed in. As the air temperature is more or less constant in that period of time, you can see a real live example of the Boyle’s law occurring in front of you.

Soda Cans/Bottles: You may have noticed that whenever a person opens a can or bottle of soda, the cap or the lid is opened slowly, allowing the gas inside to escape at a controlled rate. This is because, opening the bottle too fast causes the drink to fizz excessively and spill out of the bottle. The carbonation process of soda involves pushing in CO2 through great pressure inside the water, reducing its volume, and pushing it into a small confined space. So when the cap is opened slowly, the pressure on the gas in the soda reduces, and is allowed to gradually expand and escape from the bottle, producing fizz. However, when a soda can or bottle is shaken, the extra gas at the top of the bottle is mixed with the liquid. When the cap is taken off, the gas bubbles rapidly expand altogether while still in the liquid, and as the gas tries to escape the bottle, it pushes the liquid along with it, causing a messy spill.

If someone buys a fully puffed up bag of chips from a store on the top of a mountain, the pack of chips is likely to explode or leak out the gas once the person reaches the bottom of the mountain. This happens because the air pressure at the top of the mountain is lower than at its base, which allows the gas to expand in volume and explode.

Aerosols: In aerosols such as spray paints or deodorants, there are usually two components inside the can, i.e., the primary liquid product such as paint or perfume, and a gas which is sealed and kept in a highly pressurized state so that it is kept at a liquid state even at its boiling point, which is usually below room temperature. When you push the nozzle of the aerosol can down, the seal on the liquid gas is opened, reducing the pressure, and giving it an escape route. The gas instantly starts to boil, changing into a gas of increasing volume, and pushing the perfume or paint out of the can in its efforts to move into an area with lesser pressure. This same principle can be seen in fire extinguishers too.

Syringes: When the plunger of a syringe is pulled back out, it causes the volume of the gas inside it to increase due to the reduction of pressure. This creates a vacuum in the syringe, which is constantly trying to adjust the pressure back to normal. However, since the only substance available, such as the blood or medication, is on the other side of the needle, this liquid is sucked into the vacuum, increasing the pressure and decreasing the volume of the gas. When we push the plunger back down, the pressure again increases, lowering the volume inside the syringe, and pushing the fluid out.

Respiration: Boyle’s law is essential for the human breathing process. As the muscles of the diaphragm contract, the decreased pressure causes the volume of the thoracic cavity to expand as you breathe in. When you breathe out, the volume of the thoracic cavity goes down, increasing the pressure on the lungs, and pushing air out. Thus, our very lives are dependent on Boyle’s law.

Application of Boyle’s Law in Industries

Storage of Gases: Many industries store gases under high pressure. This allows the gas to be stored at a low volume, saving plenty of storage space. This is commonly seen in compressed natural gas plants.

Usage of Internal Combustion Engines: Many industries use such engines in their factories for production purposes. When the power of such an engine is increased, fuel is mixed with air and is compressed by the pistons of the engine. When the fuel-air mixture is under high pressure, it is ignited, and the sudden reduction in pressure increases the volume of the air, pushing the piston into the cylinder. This process repeats continuously, creating energy for the machine’s operation.

As you can see, Boyle’s law has immense practical uses in the real world, apart from the theoretical studies of ideal and real gases, and still forms a crucial part of research that has anything to do with gases.

In life, nothing happens randomly or without reason. Even those events that you consider tiny are all fully dependent on the laws of nature. Everything happens for a reason, and according to firm laws, do not allow randomness to dominate the universe.

So, this article revolves around some applications that occur in our lives are thought to be random; however, they are based on one of the most important physical laws, which is Boyle’s law(real life applications of Boyle’s law) and why is Boyle’s law important .

At the end of the article, there will be a 3D simulation at the physics lab in PraxiLabs to prove Boyle’s law.

Who is Boyle?

Boyle is a chemist and physicist and also an inventor. Although he suffered from a serious disease that affected his eyes permanently, he overcame his disability and hired some people to write his thoughts.

Boyle became the first to put the foundation stone in gases laws and to discover a law that reflected the behavior of gases. He discovered a breakthrough in physics which then became called Boyle’s law. He was also one of the founders of modern chemistry.

What is strange is that he did not officially attend any university. Boyle was so rich that he did all his research at his own expense. Despite his achievements in physics, his favorite subject was chemistry.

How did Boyle discover the first law of gases – (Boyle’s law)?

In 1654, the German physicist Otto von Gerecke invented the first evacuated tube. When Boyle learned about it, he discussed this invention with his friend Robert Hook.

Hook worked on improving this vacuum tube, then Boyle and Hook began to discover air and vacuum properties using this tube.

While Boyle and Hook were doing their experiments, they discovered the greatest discovery of their lives, now called Boyle’s law. They changed the pressure on a fixed weight of air using mercury. Boyle discovered that the greater the pressure on the air, the smaller the volume.

What is Boyle’s law and what is its significance? (significance of Boyle’s law)

When the pressure changes on a certain amount of gas, its size is inversely proportional to the pressure, provided that the temperature is constant.

The law is described by the mathematical equation PV = K. It has become a basic law in chemistry.

The Importance of Boyle’s law

The importance of Boyle’s law lies in being the first law to describe the behavior of gases.

It explained that the gases spread in the medium, that is, the volume increases if the pressure is decreased and vice versa (the particles are displaced from each other and move easily) if the gas is compressed, causing the volume to shrink.

Different Boyle’s law applications in real life

1- Spray paint Boyle’s law

You may have wondered how Boyle’s law is applied in aerosols?

Spray paint or aerosol spray is consider one of applications of Boyle’s law, as it is generally based on Boyle’s law, where the paint container contains two substances, one of them is the paint material itself, and the other is a compressed gas in a liquid state in the container.

Although the liquefied gas boiling point is less than room temperature, it does not actually boil in the container and does not turn into gas because the container is best sealed.

As soon as you press the sprayer and the gas starts to get out of the container, the boiling state starts, the liquefied gas expands and turns into gas, and the gas presses the paint inside the container. The paint material is pushed up to get out of the sprayer nozzle with gas escaping from the container.

2- Soda bottle (Soda can Boyle’s law)

Soda bottles or cans are consider a practical application of Boyle’s law ,as all of us apply Boyle’s Law but unintentionally. Note that when you open the bottle of soda quickly, the gas rushes from everywhere in the form of foam, causing a mess. So What is the cause of this mess?

This mess occurs because the soda is pumped into the soda bottle by passing the water on carbon dioxide. When you open the bottle, you are actually reducing the pressure on the gas, and the volume of the gas expands.

If you remove the cap quickly, the gas pushes out of the bottle. Therefore, you should open the cap slowly and carefully until the gas comes out quietly.

We are facing another phenomenon in the cases of soda bottles, which is the effervescence of soda if the bottle exposed to shaking. So what happens in this case?

In this case, when the cap begins to open, the gas tries to escape from the bottle. But, because of being mixed with the liquid, the gas brings the fluid with it and they are pushed out together, turning into foam and causing a mess.

3 – Diving into deep water

Every skillful diver knows that, after diving in deep water, divers have to return to the top very slowly. Our bodies are built and designed to live in natural pressure. Low and increased pressure cause many problems. Here is the scientific reason behind the slow rise.

As the diver moves down to the bottom of the water, the pressure increases. Increasing pressure leads to a decrease in volume, and the diver’s blood begins to absorb the nitrogen gas. The opposite happens when the diver starts to rise again, and the nitrogen gas molecules begin to expand and return to its volume.

If the diver makes a slow rise, the nitrogen gas molecules expand and return to normal without problems, but if it rises quickly, the diver’s blood turns into foam and the same mess that occurs in the soda bottles causes the diver to bend and feel strong pain.

In the worst case, this sudden drop in body pressure can instantly terminate the diver’s life.

Watch the following video, for a better explanation of changing of the volume as the pressure changes below the sea level.

An experiment to prove Boyle’s law at the physics lab in PraxiLabs.

After recognizing Boyle, his first law of gases and also applications of Boyle’s law , we thank you for your reading of the article to the end, and we invite you to try the virtual lab and do a 3D simulation to prove Boyle’s law via PraxiLabs.

Steps to access the experiment:

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2. Click on My account
3. Press 3D simulations
4. Click on Physics
5. Select Boyle’s Law

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