Calculating Work Done by an Ideal Gas in an Isothermal Expansion

[Rasine]

55 moles of an ideal gas, at an initial pressure of 3.00 × 105 N/m2 and an initial volume of 1.700 m3, undergo a small isothermal expansion to a volume of 1.720 m3. Find the work done by the gas.


i am confused about the units but here is what i got...

so w=nRTln(vi/vf)


so i know n and i know vi and vf...now for R i think i am going to use 8.314 J/mol K...are those the right units?


so to find T i must use PiVi=nRT

but what units does P and V have to be into yeild K and shoud use the same units for R as i wrote above?

 

[Chi Meson]

You are using the correct formula and the correct reasoning. The constant R (8.314 N*m/mol*K) is designed specifically to give you the right units. You will get the temperature in Kelvins.

P*V, by the way, gives you a unit equivalent to joules. Pressure can be considered to be a measurement of energy per volume ratio. In a monatomic ideal gas, the internal energy of the gas is equal to (3/2)PV.

 

[Rasine]

thank you so much