Page 30 - Basic physical chemistry for the atmospheric sciences

1 6 Basic physical chemistry

equilibrium constant is defined in terms of the activities of the reactants and
products. We will not consider this complication here since, for gases at pressure < I
atm, Kc is essentially constant.
6 The numerical value of k given here is expressed to an accuracy of four significant
figures. This is because this is the number of significant figures in the least accurate
numerical value that we have used to derive the value of k (namely, 6.022 x 1023).
This same principle will be followed throughout this text, and in solving numerical
problems.