Real gas

Real gases are non-hypothetical gases whose molecules occupy space and have interactions; consequently, they adhere to gas laws. To understand the behaviour of real gases, the following must be taken into account:

For most applications, such a detailed analysis is unnecessary, and the ideal gas approximation can be used with reasonable accuracy. On the other hand, real-gas models have to be used near the condensation point of gases, near critical points, at very high pressures, to explain the Joule–Thomson effect and in other less usual cases. The deviation from ideality can be described by the compressibility factor Z.