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I have some trouble understanding the carnot cycle and why you have to make it so complicated, i.e. this process involves 2 isothermal and 2 adiabatic processes.
If you want an engine with maximum efficiency why can't you just have a system whose temperature is just a tiny inch above your hot resevoir and then absorbs heat at a rate such that it continually expands isothermally? - by this I mean that all the heat goes to producing work and keeping the proces isothermal.
Edit: I also have a second question. The efficiency of an engine is given by:
e = 1- Tc/Th , where Tc and Th are the temperatures of the hot and cold resevoir. You can see that the smaller temperature for the cold resevoir the higher efficiency - why is that? Then the entropy expelled to the environment is bigger but how does that make you lose less energy?
If you want an engine with maximum efficiency why can't you just have a system whose temperature is just a tiny inch above your hot resevoir and then absorbs heat at a rate such that it continually expands isothermally? - by this I mean that all the heat goes to producing work and keeping the proces isothermal.
Edit: I also have a second question. The efficiency of an engine is given by:
e = 1- Tc/Th , where Tc and Th are the temperatures of the hot and cold resevoir. You can see that the smaller temperature for the cold resevoir the higher efficiency - why is that? Then the entropy expelled to the environment is bigger but how does that make you lose less energy?
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