U Q W
Remember that the 1st Law of Thermo tells us what is happening to the energy of the system.
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The Environment
Heat added to the system
from the environment. +Q
The System
The System
Note the sign conventions for work (W) and heat (Q). This is very important!
Here is a table of code words to look for so that you know when Heat and Work are positive or negative:
+W
-W
+Q
-Q
Work added to the system
Work done on the system
The system is compressed
If this is starting to seem rather vague Its really not that hard. Here are two examples:
Example #1: System gecko
Environment everything else but the gecko
The gecko wakes up and notices that its system is cold. It sees a hot rock in the environment and snuggles up
to it. The gecko absorbs heat from the environment/rock (+Q). The gecko/system has a positive internal energy
change (+U). The heat exchange ceases when the gecko/system and the rock/environment reach the same
temperature (thermal equilibrium).
U W Q
Since there were no external forced that did work on the gecko: W 0
Thus: U Q
The geckos internal energy increase is equal to the about of heat that was added to its system
Example #2
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(The cos drops out of the equation because pressure is always perpendicular to the volume displacement.)
J
molK
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Which way would you move on the pV diagram to get warmer or colder?
Every point that has the same pV value has the same temperature Isothermal lines
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Chris Bruhn
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How do we find Heat (Q) from a pV diagram? Well we dont. Not directly anyway. You may have been
taught these equations: Q nc p T and Q ncV T in Chemistry or Physics. However, you are not required to
know them for the AP Physics B exam. Besides, these two equations are only good for constant pressure and
constant volume processes anyway. So, how do we find Heat (Q)? We use the 1st law of Thermo U W Q
Here is the procedure:
1. We either find W and U from the pV diagram or they are given values in a problem.
2. We plug these values into U W Q and calculate Q.
Thats it!
Here is a practice problem. For each path in the diagram below determine if the value is positive, negative, or
zero and fill in the table with a +, -, or 0. (The key is on the last page.)
Path
A
B
C
D
How to
determine
the sign
Chris Bruhn
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3
nRT
2
Wgas pV
Page 6
U W Q
10/9/2015
That meansU drops out of the 1st Law of Thermo and the equation becomes Q W !
The net work of a cycle = the area inside the cycle. Counterclockwise cycles have a net +W and Q.
Clockwise cycles have a net W and +Q. Note that we can not find the value of the net work for cycle #3
because of its odd shape. (We would need calculus to find the area of cycle #3.)
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Fill in the table below with a +, -, or 0 for each of the 4 special processes as shown above. (Key on last page.)
Path
W
Q
T
U
#1
#2
#3
#4
How to
determine
the sign
Chris Bruhn
cbruhn@dallasisd.org
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3
nRT
2
Page 8
Wgas pV
U W Q
10/9/2015
Page 9
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the work we can get it to do divided by how much available heat we had to steal from: e
QH
QH
At this point some of you are thinking Why dont we just turn all of the heat ( QH ) into work ( W ) and
produce a heat engine with 100% efficiency? This is indeed a great idea but unfortunately, it can not be done
because it violates the 2nd Law of Thermo by turning disordered thermal energy completely into ordered work.
There is always wasted thermal energy in a heat engine. Efficiency ( e ) is always less than 1 or 100%.
What does a Heat Engine look like on a pV diagram?
On a pV diagram, a heat engine will be a cycle that moves in a clockwise direction. Here is an example:
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Where is the heat flowing into the cycle on the pV diagram? In other words, where is QH ? It is QAB 12483 J .
Where is the heat flowing out of the cycle? Where is QC ? It is the combination of QBC QCA 11233 J .
How much work is siphoned off in the cycle? It is the net work of the cycle: Wcycle WAB WBC WCA 1250 J
Remember that for a heat engine: W QH QC and this is true: 1250 J 12483 J 11233 J
W QH QC
1250 J
0.1 10%
What is the efficiency of this heat engine? e
QH
QH
12, 483 J
An energy-transfer diagram shows only the net energy flow for a heat engine in a very general picture.
A pV diagram shows all the details of what is going on inside the gas as the heat engine is operating.
Both diagrams show the same heat engine in a different format.
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Path
AB
BC
CA
Net
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Notice:
Work W input is required to move heat QC out of a cold place and into a hot place.
The exhausted heat QH is larger than the removed heat QC .
Conservation of Energy tell us that QH W QC
Things to remember about heat engines and refrigerators:
1. Heat Engines and Refrigerators are both cycles on a pV diagram. Tcycle U cycle 0 for cycles
2. Heat Engines move in a clockwise cycle on a pV diagram.
3. Refrigerators move counterclockwise on a pV diagram.
4. pV diagrams show you the particulars of what is going on in a gas while the energy transfer diagram only
shows you the net effect of the energy movement.
5. The efficiency of a Heat Engine will be 0 e 1 .
6. The energy transfer diagram and efficiency equations will work equally well with units of Joules or Watts.
For example a problem on the AP exam might say: A heat engine takes in heat QH at a rate of 1000 W and
exhausts waist energy QC to the environment at a rate of 600 W. Using the equation: QH W QC , you can
W QH QC
calculate the rate at which work W is done to be 400W! Using the equation: e
, you can
QH
QH
calculate the efficiency of the heat engine to be 0.4 or 40%. As long as all of your units are the either Joules
or Watts, the equations function exactly the same.
We only have one more thing to talk about
Chris Bruhn
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(214) 932-5102
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Type
Isothermal
Adiabatic
Isothermal
Adiabatic
Significance
T U 0
Q 0
T U 0
Q 0
Entropy
QH /TH = +S
S = 0
QC /TC = -S
S = 0
Scycle = 0
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10/9/2015
U
+
0
-
W
+
0
+
Q
+ (Big +)
- (same sign as W)
- (same sign as U)
- (Big -)
Wgas pV
3
nRT
2
U W Q
Key for table on page 8: (If the processes were moving to the left and upward instead of right and downward,
all the signs in the table below would be revered!)
Path
W
Q
T
U
#1
0
#2
0
#3
0
0
+
#4
+
+
+ (Big +)
How to
determine
the sign
3
nRT
2
Wgas pV
U W Q
Key for table on page 13: (Remember that for a cycle the Tcycle U cycle 0 and that W Q . Q = 0 for
Adiabatic processes and W = 0 when the process moved up and down on the pV diagram.)
Path
W
Q
T
U
AB
+415 K
+1035 J
0
+1035 J
BC
-312 K
-778 J
+520 J
-1298 J
CA
-103 K
-257 J
-257 J
0
Net
0
0
+263 J
-263 J
Key to question on page 15:
Was your answer 0.5 or 50%? I hope not! Remember that temperature has to be in units of Kelvin not Celsius.
T T
473K 373K
eC H C
0.21 21%
TH
473K
Chris Bruhn
cbruhn@dallasisd.org
(214) 932-5102
Page 16
10/9/2015