Physics II / The First Law and Heat Capacities
Practice question · Estimate

An ideal gas absorbs 600 J of heat during an isothermal expansion. Set the work it does on its surroundings, in J.

Estimate on a scale from 0 J (0) to 1000 J (1000).

Hints
  1. What happens to the internal energy of an ideal gas at constant temperature?
  2. It does not change, so the first law forces the heat and the work to balance exactly.
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600 (answers within ±50 count)

Why

For an ideal gas UU depends only on TT, so ΔU=0\Delta U = 0 and the first law gives Q=WQ = -W: all 600 J emerges as work. None of the heat is retained, because the temperature has not moved.

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