ideal gas

ideal gas

n.

A gas that, when kept at a constant temperature, would obey the gas laws exactly. No known gas is an ideal gas.

---

ideal gas  (-dl)

A hypothetical gas whose molecules bounce off each other (and the boundaries of their container) with perfect elasticity and have negligible size, and in which the intermolecular forces acting between molecules not in contact with each other are also negligible. Such a gas would obey the gas laws (such as Charles's law and Boyle's law) exactly at all temperatures and pressures. Most actual gases behave approximately as ideal gases, except at very low temperatures (when the potential energy of their intermolecular forces is high relative to the kinetic energy of the molecules and becomes significant), and under very high pressures (when the molecules are packed so close together that close-range intermolecular forces become significant).

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

ideal gas - a hypothetical gas with molecules of negligible size that exert no intermolecular forces perfect gas gas - a fluid in the gaseous state having neither independent shape nor volume and being able to expand indefinitely