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Work and Energy for a Heat System

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Please work the following practice problem. Being very thorough. Explain how you intend to approach the problem, important information and or equations that are relevant to solve/understand the thought process.

Consider a situation in which the surroundings heat a system and the system contains a gas which expands against a piston causing the piston to move.
a. Is there a potential to do work in this system?
b. Is work done?
i. What would need to be true for work to be done?
c. If the heat was increased would more or less work be done or would the system be unaffected?

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Solution Summary

This solution clarifies some of the basic concepts associated with expansion work and internal energy change.

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Energy/Work
Please work the following practice problem. Being very thorough. Explain how you intend to approach the problem, important information and or equations that are relevant to solve/understand the thought process.
Consider a situation in which the surroundings heat a system and the system contains a gas which expands against a piston causing the piston to move.
a. Is there a potential to do work in this ...

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  • "Thankyou for the feedback. I have a few question though; With the first statistic about cost below... “According to Sigma-Aldrich catalog, cost of 1L octane is AUD $ 392.00, whereas the cost of 1L ethanol is AUD $196.00. Moreover, if ethanol is obtained from sugar industry as a by-product, it may cost even less. Source of oxygen is ambient atmosphere, so it costs nothing. So ethanol is much cheaper than petrol, in fact it is half-priced: AUD $ (392-196) = $ 196.” I didn't think it made sense because the cost of petrol per litre is normally a dollar something or even less than a dollar not a couple of hundred of dollars. For example, a statistic that I found in america was: "U.S. ethanol production costs are about $1.20 per gallon of ethanol, or $1.82 per gallon on a gasoline-equivalent basis." However, I was wondering whether you could find an Australian statistic. Also, you mentioned that H20 is not a greenhouse gas. However, in the combustion equations it is actually carbon dioxide and water vapour which are produced and they are both greenhouse gases. Finally, how do I calculate the energy efficiency of ethanol and petrol? "
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