While traveling, an airplane passenger placed a bag of potato chips in his checked luggage. When he opened the luggage, the bag had exploded and potato chips were everywhere in his luggage. Which gas law is this an example of?

D) Boyle's Law is the correct option.

Explanation:

The complete question is:

While traveling, an airplane passenger placed a sealed bag of potato chips in his checked luggage. When he opened the luggage, he observed that apparently the bag had exploded during the flight and potato chips were everywhere in his luggage. Which gas law is this an example of? A) Avogadro's Law B) Ideal Gas Law C) Charles's Law D) Boyle's Law E) Dalton's Law

To understand how the answer is obtained, lets look at the relationship between pressure and height.

Pressure decreases with increasing altitude. At higher elevations, there are fewer air molecules above a given surface than a similar surface at lower levels.

So this means at ground level, the pressure is high and at the space in air where the airplane travels, the pressure is low.

Chip bags are pressurised relative to the atmosphere. As the plane climbs, the pressure in the cabin drops, which increases the pressure difference. This pressure difference may exceed the strength of the bag, causing it to break.

Now this situation is an example of Boyle's law because it gives the relationship between volume of the bag and pressure difference.

Boyle's law assumes that as the pressure decreases, the volume increases and vice versa.

Soda cans are designed to withstand much larger amounts of pressure from the inside.