Question

The cylinder with piston locked in place is immersed in a mixture of ice and water and allowed to come to thermal equilibrium withthe mixture. The piston is then moved inward very slowly, that thegas is always in thermal equilibrium with the ice-water mixture,what happens to the following(increase, decrease, same)?
a. volume of gas
b. temperature of gas
c. internal energy of gas,
d. pressure of gas

Answer 1

Answer:

a. volume of gas:  (decreases)

b. temperature of gas:  (same)

c. internal energy of gas: (same)

d. pressure of gas: (increases)

Explanation:

We have a gas (let's suppose that is ideal) in a piston with a fixed volume V.

Then we put in a reservoir at 0°C (the mixture of water and ice)

remember that the state equation for an ideal gas is:

P*V = n*R*T

and:

U = c*n*R*T

where:

P = pressure

V = volume

n = number of mols

R = constant

c = constant

T = temperature.

Now, we have equilibrium at T = 0°C, then we can assume that T is also a constant.

Then in the equation:

P*V = n*R*T

all the terms in the left side are constants.

P*V = constant

And knowing that:

U = c*n*R*T

then:

n*R*T = U/c

We can replace it in the other equation to get:

P*V = U/c = constant.

Now, the piston is (slowly) moving inwards, then:

a) Volume of the gas: as the piston moves inwards, the volume where the gas can be is smaller, then the volume of the gas decreases.

b) temperature of the gas: we know that the gas is a thermal equilibrium with the mixture (this happens because we are in a slow process) then the temperature of the gas does not change.

c) Internal energy of the gas:

we have:

P*V = n*R*T = constant

and:

P*V = U/c = constant.

Then:

U = c*Constant

This means that the internal energy does not change.

d) Pressure of the gas:

Here we can use the relation:

P*V = constant

then:

P = (constant)/V

Now, if V decreases, the denominator in that equation will be smaller. We know that if we decrease the value of the denominator, the value of the quotient increases.

And the quotient is equal to P.

Then if the volume decreases, we will see that the pressure increases.