Question

1 mole of an ideal gas initially at 10 atm and 300k is allowed to expand isothermally to 1 atm. calculate the net work done by the system.​

Answer 1

Explanation:

For an isothermal reaction, the temperature would remain constant. The formula for calculating work done when a gas is allowed to expand from 10 atm to 1 atm is;

work done = −2.303 x nRT x log (P2/P1)

Here n is the number of moles, R the real gas constant, T is the temperature, P2 is final pressure and P1 is the initial pressure.

Putting the given values

= −2.303×8.314×300log(1 / 10)

= −2.303×8.314×300

= −5.74kJ

Hence the work done is 5.74 kJ.