Name: Law of Multiple Proportions
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 6 min 43 s
Description: The Law of multiple proportions is applicable only when two elements combine to form two or more compounds. Watch this video to know how this law is applicable.

Question

State Berzelius hypothesis.

Accepted Answer

A Swedish chemist Berzelius correlated the two laws and put forward is the concept called Berzelius hypothesis. It states that equal volumes of all gases under similar conditions of temperature and pressure contain an equal number of atoms.
When this concept of combining volume was applied, it directly indicated that the atoms are divisible which contradicted Dalton's hypothesis. Example: Now, let us elaborate the hypothesis with the help of an example. Let us consider the reaction between hydrogen and chlorine atoms to produce hydrogen chloride molecules, the reaction can be given as follows:
$H + Cl \to HCl$

Now, if we consider that $1$ volume of hydrogen and $1$ volume of chlorine are reacting, then $2$ volumes of hydrogen chloride will be produced. If $1$ volume of hydrogen gas contains $n$ number of atoms and $1$ volume of chlorine gas also contains $n$ number of atoms, then the produced hydrogen chloride will contain $2n$ number of molecules.

$H + Cl \to HCl 1 V + 1 V \to 2 V n (atoms) + n (atoms) \to 2 n (molecules)$
Now, if we divide the above equation by $2 n$ , then we will have:

$\frac{1}{2}$ (atom) $+ \frac{1}{2}$ (atom) $\to 1$ (molecule)

Hence, it can be stated that half hydrogen will react with half chloride atom to produce one hydrogen chloride molecule. From the above equation, it is clear that when the Berzelius hypothesis is applied, then the atoms are supposed to be divisible which creates a direct conflict with Dalton's hypothesis which stated that the atoms are indivisible and the ultimate particles of the elements.

State Berzelius hypothesis.

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