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Understanding The Relationship Between Temperature And Pressure

Temperature and pressure are two separate things. However, the relationship between the two is important, and everyone needs to understand it.

The Effect Of Temperature On Pressure

When you raise the temperature of a fluid, be it a gas or liquid, it will expand. This expansion causes its pressure to increase if it is contained in a sealed area such as a pot, spray can, cylinder, etc. Lowering temperature reduces pressure. The effect that temperature has on pressure is almost instantaneous.

What does this mean for containers already under high pressure? This means they are dangerous when exposed to heat, even small amounts of it, hence the warning labels that instruct you to keep them away from major heat sources.

The Effect Of Pressure On Temperature

Increasing the pressure of a gas without heating it is done by compression. This causes a temperature increase by causing the gas to reject its heat into its surroundings (such as cylinder walls, for example, and this is what makes the cylinder walls warm). Please note that this is not an increase in the amount of heat in the gas. Heat quantity and temperature are two different things.

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