Sunday, December 11, 2011

How does the change in heat equal work done? In a numerical my teacher said that delta Q = W. How?

According to the first law of thermodynamics, heat, internal energy and work are related by the following expression:


Change in internal energy = heat added to the system - work done


or `DeltaU`  = `DeltaQ` - W


where W represents the work done by the system. 


In simple terms, when heat is added to a system, the internal energy of the system changes and/or it does some work. 


There can be cases where the internal energy is conserved and cannot be changed. In such cases, 


delta Q = W


That is, the change in heat is equal to work done by the system, since change in internal energy is zero. In other words, if we add heat to such a system, it will do work. On the other hand, if the system does work, it loses heat. 


An example of such a system is an ideal gas in an isothermal process (temperature is constant). In such a system, the change in internal energy would be zero and the change in heat will be equal to the work.


Hope this helps. 

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