Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-b-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/paper-2a/section-a/1/solution
Past exam of the physics B course of the University of Cambridge 2010 Paper 2A Section A 1 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
For a reversible isothermal expansion of one mole of an ideal gas, internal energy depends only on temperature, so . The first law of thermodynamics givesThis uses quasistatic expansion against the gas pressure. Specifying only the initial and final volumes and constant temperature would not fix heat for an arbitrary irreversible process: an insulated ideal-gas free expansion has .
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