Internal Energy
 

Internal Energy problem 18


An ideal gas is contained in a cylinder by means of a movable frictionless piston, as illustrated in the figure below.




Initially, the gas has a volume of at a pressure of and a temperature of .


  • Show that the number of gas molecules in the cylinder is .


  • The gas expands so that its volume increases to at a pressure of and a temperature of , as shown in the figure below.




    The average translational kinetic energy of a molecule of an ideal gas is given by




    where is the Boltzmann constant and is the thermodynamic temperature. Calculate the increase in internal energy of the gas during the expansion.


 

main author and content editor: Ebenezer Famadewa