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In the previous example, we have used an isothermal path. It is convenient to define other terms which describe pathways concisely. An isobaric path is one at constant pressure. An isochoric path is one at constant volume. An adiabatic path is one without heat transfer.  The terms “isothermal,” “isobaric,” “isochoric,” and “adiabatic,” describe pathways. The heat and work transfer necessary for a change…

A very simple experiment shows us that heat transport is also related to energy. If two steel blocks of different temperature are placed in contact with one another, but otherwise are insulated from their surroundings, they will come to equilibrium at a common intermediate temperature. The warmer block will be cooled, and the colder block…

In order to properly understand the various characteristic forms that work may assume, we must address an issue which primarily belongs to the upcoming chapter on entropy. The problem is that the generation of disorder reflected by entropy change results in conversion of potentially useful work energy into practically useless thermal energy. If “generation of…

In engineering applications, most problems involve flowing systems. This means that materials typically flow into a piece of equipment and then flow out of it, crossing well-defined system boundaries in the process. Thus, we need to introduce an additional characterization of work: the work interaction of the system and surroundings when mass crosses a boundary.…

In a flowing system, we know that a propeller-type device can be used to push a fluid through pipes—this is the basis of a centrifugal pump. Also, a fluid flowing through a similar device could cause movement of a shaft—this is the basis for hydroelectric power generation and the water wheels that powered mills in…

There is a simple way that a force on a surface may interact with the system to cause expansion/contraction of the system in volume. This is the type of surface interaction that occurs if we release the latch of a piston, and move the piston in/out while holding the cylinder in a fixed location. Note…