Butane (C₄H₈) is an easily compressible gas used in cigarette lig...

Question

Butane (C₄H₈) is an easily compressible gas used in cigarette lighters. It has a melting point of and a boiling point of - 138.4 degree Celsius and a boiling point of 0.5 degree Celsius. Would you expect a butane lighter to work in winter when the temperature outdoors is 25 degree F? Why or why not?

Accepted Answer

Welcome back everyone. Butane lighters do not usually work at cold temperatures. The melting point and boiling point of propane are negative 187.7 Celsius and negative 42.3 Celsius respectively, assuming we can replace butane C four H 10 with propane C three H eight. Would the propane lighter work at 14 F. We need to explain our answer. So according to the prompts are melting point of propane C three H eight is equal to negative 187.7 degrees Celsius and are boiling point of propane is equal to negative 42.3 degrees Celsius. And so based on these values, we can say that therefore if the temperature is below the melting point negative 187.7 degrees Celsius, that means that we have solid propane. And then the next thing we can say is that if the temperature is between negative 187.7 C And -42.3°C. So between our melting and boiling point, we would therefore have liquid propane. And so when our temperature is greater than the boiling point of negative 42.3°C, this will give us our gas propane or propane gas. And that's how we'll explain our final answer. And so because we're given our temperature equal to 14 F, we're going to recall our formula for calculating Fahrenheit temperature, which is equal to 1.8 times the Celsius temperature plus 32. So plugging in our value 14 Fahrenheit. We're setting this equal to 1.8 times our Celsius temperature plus 32. And what we need to do is solve For our C temperature. So we're going to subtract 32 from both sides of our equation so that it cancels out on the right and then we'll have the difference between 14 F and 32 which will give us a value of negative 18 and this is equal to what's left on the right hand side of our equation 1.8 times are Celsius temperature. Now dividing both sides by 1.8 so that it cancels out on the right. We're left with our Celsius temperature of our propane equal to a value of negative 10 degrees Celsius. And therefore we can say that when our temperature is equal to negative degrees Celsius, which is actually greater than our boiling point temperature of negative 42.3 degrees Celsius as given in the prompt. Therefore, we can say that propane is a gas At 14°F. And so yes, the lighter will work. The lighter made of propane will work. And so this statement would be our final answer to complete this example which will correspond to choice D in the multiple choice. So I hope that this made sense. And let us know if you have any questions

Key Concepts

Phase Changes

Temperature Conversion

Gas Behavior Under Pressure

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