Question: Determining absolute zero with a piston

AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around determining absolute zero using an experiment involving a piston in a cylinder of water. The experiment measures the height change of the piston with varying weights at two temperatures: 23 degrees Celsius and 3 degrees Celsius. By graphing height against the inverse of pressure, participants are encouraged to consider the ideal gas law and the significance of the product of pressure and volume. The key point is that extrapolating to absolute zero involves finding where the product of pressure and volume equals zero. Understanding these relationships is crucial for accurately determining absolute zero.
PrinceOfDeaf
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I am working on a lab report related to Ideal Gases at the moment, and I can't quite grasp how you would go about finding the temperature for absolute zero. Here's a brief synopsis of our experiment: We inserted a piston into a cylinder of water to keep the piston at a steady temperature of 23 degrees Celsius. Then, we placed known masses on top of the piston and measured the height change, thereby allowing us to determine the pressure that the gas exerts (1kg, 2kg, ..., 5kg). We repeated this experiment but now with ice in the water, and this changed the system to be at a steady 3 degrees Celsius. We graphed height vs 1/pressure for both cases and computed regression lines if that has any significance to the question at hand.

How would you go about extrapolating absolute zero from this experiment?
 
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Hi PrinceofDeaf, welcome to PF. What is the ideal gas law? What quantity (hint: what product) would be zero at T=0\,\mathrm{K}?
 

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