Chapter 9.3
The First Law of Thermodynamics and PV Diagrams
Squeeze a gas quickly and it gets hot with no flame anywhere. The piston did work, and the gas has nowhere to keep that energy except in the speed of its molecules.
free · lesson 3 of 27
By the end
- 01Identify the internal energy of an ideal gas with its total molecular kinetic energy
- 02Apply the first law with work counted as done on the gas
- 03Read work as the area under a P–V curve, signed by the process direction
- 04Analyze constant-volume, constant-pressure, isothermal, and adiabatic processes on a P–V diagram