Question of the Week

I would like add this post as a regular thread and will ask for student response tomorrow. For now, try the following problem, but begin your work independently and allow yourselves to work on the problem for a couple of days before asking for hints, etc. These problems will be given apart from your regular homework asssignments, so there is no rush.

Suppose that three linear equations are given, one for each of the substances, methane, water, and nitrous oxide.

Methane: -2T + 302V = 546.4
Water: -T + 228V = 273.2
Nitrous Oxide: -3T + 1872V = 819.6

where V stands for volume and is measured in liters and T stands for temperature and is measured in degrees Celsius.

Questions:
If the lowest possible temperature ("absolute zero") is defined to be the lowest temperature for all the substances listed above, use linear analysis to find the value of absolute zero in terms of T.