The volume of a gas decreases to half of its original volume, but the gas maintains the same number of moles and temperature. according to the ideal gas law, what will most likely happen to the pressure?

it will double.
it will decrease.
it will increase slightly.
it will remain the same.

It will double.

Explanation:

For a gas at constant temperature and constant number of moles, we can use Boyle's law, which states that the product between pressure and volume of the gas is constant:

This relationship implies that the pressure and the volume are inversely proportional. The previous equation can also be rewritten as

where P1 is the initial pressure of the gas, V1 the initial volume, P2 the final pressure and V2 the final volume. The problem says that the volume of the gas decreases to half of its original volume, so we can write

Substituting into the previous equation, we can find the new pressure of the gas:

Therefore, the final pressure is twice the initial pressure.