What are real gases?

Real gases are gases that act like the ones we see every day, like air or helium from a balloon.

Imagine you have a bunch of blocks, these are like gas particles. When they're far apart, they don’t really notice each other and just move around freely. That’s how real gases behave most of the time. But when you squeeze them together (like putting too many blocks in a small box), they start to bump into each other more, and that changes how they act.

If you try to squash a balloon too much, it might pop, gas particles are similar. When real gases get really cold or really squished, they stop acting like the perfect, invisible blocks we imagine. Instead, they start to behave more like the ones in a crowded room, bumping into each other and sometimes even sticking together.

So, real gases are just like the air around us, not perfect, but super familiar!