Chemistry / Unit 7 Chem 1302 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Direct-Proportionality Misreading of Graham's Law
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The idea
Assuming effusion rate scales directly with molar mass, rather than inversely with its square root, misreads Graham's law and reverses which gas effuses faster.
In practice
A student expecting the heavier gas to effuse faster, reasoning it has "more mass to push through," gets the ranking backward.
Where people slip
Graham's law's inverse-square-root relationship means the lighter gas always effuses faster, never the heavier one.
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