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The task is to reproduce the spreadsheet shown in the lecture and printed out below.
This can be broken down into several stages. It is probably a good idea to work
through the example in the manual before starting this exercise if you are not familiar
with Excel.
The purpose of your spreadsheet is to calculate the density of an ideal gas given its
molecular weight for a range of temperatures at a given pressure. The user should be
able to specify the molecular weight, the pressure in bar and the temperature range in
°C.
The ideal gas equation is PV = nRT where P is the absolute pressure, V is the gas
volume, R is the gas constant, n is the number of moles present and T is the absolute
temperature.
We require the density of the gas, which can be calculated from the equation above.
mass of material
To do this we think about density ρ, which is defined as . In order to
volume occupied
determine the mass of material present we need an additional piece of information;
the molecular weight of the substance, we will call this M. The mass present is then
Mn
given by mass = Mn . The density is then ρ = rearranging the ideal gas equation
V
n P Mn MP
gives = , so = , the equation used in the spreadsheet.
V RT V RT
I think giving the constants and variables names helps in composing the formulae.
Think about units! What units do you need in the equation to make it consistent?
Calculate the density at one temperature first then think about how to get the range of
temperatures. Think about how you would go about getting 11 (Tmin, Tmax and 9
intermediate temperatures) evenly spaced temperatures manually, then think about
how to do this automatically.
For this exercise you should print out 2 copies of your spreadsheet, one similar to the
one on the previous page and one showing the formulae you have used. The second is
produced by selecting Options on the Tools menu then on the View menu select
formulas in the Window option section. This exercise is not assessed, but you are
advised to show the two copies to me so that comments can be given on layout and
functionality of the spreadsheet.