# How fair is it to say that all chemistry arises from failures of the ideal gas law?

I was reading here about how the ideal gas law assumes point masses and non-interaction. Is it fair to say that all chemistry arises from failures of that?

Of course, such a sweeping generalization will be strictly false, but is it on the right track? (I'm reminded of Feynman, "All mass is interaction," although that seems to be getting at something deeper.)

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I would personally find that kinda backwards. There is no fundamental reason to think of the ideal gas as the basis against which everything is judged. Rather the ideal gas is the unusual situation in which the relationships between pressure, volume, temperature and internal energy are easy to understand. We teach it first because it is comprehensible not because it is privileged. –  dmckee Apr 30 '13 at 19:34
This is kind of a cute way of looking at it. However, if you have a system of point masses that does interact, the interaction could be through any of the fundamental forces: electromagnetic, nuclear, or gravitational. Only in the case of the electromagnetic interaction do you get chemistry. –  Ben Crowell Apr 30 '13 at 19:43
Right, I don't mean to give a human model priority; just trying to "organize our ignorance" & understand how that model relates to some of our other modeling. If the statement is "only" backwards, then I'd say it's in good shape, since we can turn it around easily enough. Is "arises" problematic? How about: "Chemistry happens where the ideal gas law fails." (Also, I only mean logical implication, not physical causation.) –  Toph May 1 '13 at 1:29
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