Question

What does the R stand for in the ideal gas law $\left( {PV = nRT} \right)$ ?

Answer 1

The ideal gas law holds as a valid law for the gases at some conditions and relates the terms like pressure, temperature, number of moles of a gas and the temperature in kelvins and ideal gas constant or universal gas constant. The term R is called universal gas constant.

Complete answer:
Ideal gas law can also be called a general gas equation. It holds as a valid law for the gas particles. According to this law, gas particles that hold this law do not attract or repel each other. The gas particles can also not occupy any space or volume.
The gas law that holds by ideal gas is called ideal gas law. The gas law relates the terms like pressure, temperature, number of moles of a gas, ideal gas constant and temperature.
The equation for the ideal gas law can be $PV = nRT$
Where P is pressure, T is temperature, V is volume, n is number of moles and R is universal or ideal gas constant.
The units of pressure must be in atmospheres, Volume must be in litres, number of moles must be in moles and Temperature must be in kelvin.
Thus, Ideal gas constant (R) can be written as $R = \dfrac{{PV}}{{nT}}$ , it has units of $lit.atm{\left( {mol.gm} \right)^{ - 1}}$.

Note:
The ideal gas constant can also be known as universal gas constant as the law can be called as universal gas law. It is a constant value and takes the value of $R = 8.314J{\left( {mol.K} \right)^{ - 1}}$ , it also takes the value of $R = 0.0821L.atm.{\left( {mol.K} \right)^{ - 1}}$ .