- #1
Andrew U
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I have a gas transitioning adiabatically between A (P1, V1) and B (P2, V2) where P1>P2 and V2>V1. The question is to determine the net work done on the gas if the gas is first expanded reversibly from A to B (w = dE = Cv(T2-T1)), and then compressed irreversibly from B to A (w = -Pext(V1-V2)) at a constant external pressure defined by A. In this scenario, simply looking at the areas under the graphs the net work should be positive.I am trying to reconcile this with dE for the gas. For the roundtrip transition (A to B to A), dE = 0. And if we take each step as adiabatic, then dE = w for each step, but as I have described above you would end up with two different values for dE for each step, thus dE not equal to zero. My logic is flawed somewhere, can someone help?