Part 1 of 3

Squeezing a gas

identify / explain

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identify: name or select. explain: give reasons and connect them to evidence.

A sealed syringe of air is joined to a pressure gauge. It is held nozzle up, then nozzle down, then on its side, and each time the gauge reads 100 kPa. What causes the pressure of the air on the walls of the syringe? Then explain why the reading does not depend on which way up the syringe is held.

Choose one answera.The weight of the air pressing down on the bottom of the syringeb.Particles moving at random hit the walls and bounce offc.The particles are packed tightly and push outwards on the wallsd.The particles stick to the walls and pull on them

Why does the reading not depend on which way up the syringe is held?

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Scope and sources

Cambridge IGCSE Physics 0625 · 2026–2028 v2 · Original learning materials.

Gas pressure and changes in it from the motion of particles and their collisions with a surface (2.1.2.3), and pressure as the force of the collisions per unit area (2.1.2.7); the effect on the pressure of a fixed mass of gas of a change of temperature at constant volume and of a change of volume at constant temperature, in particle terms (2.1.3.1); converting between kelvin and degrees Celsius, T (in K) = θ (in °C) + 273 (2.1.3.2); pV = constant at constant temperature, with its graphs (2.1.3.3); thermal expansion of solids, liquids and gases at constant pressure, its uses and consequences, and why solids expand least and gases most (2.2.1.1–2.2.1.3). Absolute zero as the temperature of least particle motion and the particle model of matter are in PART01; pressure as force ÷ area and pressure in liquids are in PRES01.

Apparatus, amounts and times in the experiment are illustrative. Real practical work follows a teacher-approved safety method.

Official Cambridge syllabus