What is partial pressure

What is partial pressure?

Definition of partial pressure

In a mixture of gases, each gas contributes to the total pressure of the mixture. This contribution is the partial pressure. The partial pressure is the pressure the gas if the gas were in a similar volume and temperature without anyone else.Dalton's law expresses the total pressure of a blend of ideal gases is the sum of the partial pressure of every individual gas.

While the typical symbol for pressure is P or p, partial pressure is demonstrated by an addendum (e.g., P1 or p1).

Partial pressure is important in the fields of chemistry, physics, and biology. Blood levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide are directed by assessing their partial pressure.

Example of partial pressure

Intermolecular forces and we start making a little bit more of a condensed phase such as solids and liquids. you start getting all these unique properties of solids and liquids.  liquids have quite a few unique ones viscosity surface tension and one of the more unique ones is vapor pressure that's a very special case and that's probably another thing completely so let's just think about it if you take water in a container and you allow it to start evaporating the space above the surface of the water will start getting water molecules that means it's a gas now and gases impart pressures so as that builds up what's going to happen is these particles floating above the water can go back into the water unless their whisk away so if you put a lid on the in container all the particles are trapped so the water starts going back into the water phase or I should say the water vapor goes back in as this happens you finally reach a state at which the exiting evaporation rate equals the entering condensation rate and you reach what we call equilibrium so when those two rates equal you establish a constant pressure inside your container that pressure is called the vapor pressure of that liquid in case of water you would say it's the vapor pressure of water it's an example of what we call adynamic equilibrium meaning when you look at the thing you can't tell anything's happening but in actuality there are billions and billions of molecules leaving the surface of the water and there's also billions and billions re-entering and they are exactly the same rate so there's no net change but you have established what we call a vapor pressure.