Eric has convinced his friend Elon to allow him to fly on the Dragon capsule. After this spacecraft is headed towards Mars an unfortunate accident with a bag of Cheesy Poofs has punctured the skin of the spacecraft. Due to the hole, the gas in the cabin is exiting to the vacuum of space. Assuming the atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen gas and oxygen gas, how much faster does N2 (g) escape than O2 (g) (hint: solve for rate N^2/rateO^2)? Solution The movement of particles through a small hole is called effusion. According to Graham\'s law, the rate of effusion or diffusion of gas is inversely proportional to square root of its Molecular weight. So, Rate of effusion of N2 (rate 1)= 1/?(Molecular weight of N2 =1/?M1 Molecular weight of N2 = 28.013 g/mol Rate of effusion of O2 (rate 2)= 1/?M2 Molecular weight of O2 = 32.0 g/mol So, Rate N2/rate O2 = ?(M2/M1) = ?(32.0 g mol^-1 /28.0 13gmol^-1) = 1.0688 This means N2 escapes 1.0688 times faster than O2 .