Use an ideal gas to illustrate the Carnot cycle, with hot and cold heat baths at and . The four processes are all reversible thermodynamic processes. Lettered states below belong only to this illustration; the engine later in the question uses numbered states.
Starting at , perform the following four stages:
- : isothermal expansion at . The gas absorbs heat from the hot heat bath and does work. Its internal energy is unchanged, so .
- : reversible ideal-gas adiabat during expansion. Insulation prevents heat transfer; work done by the gas reduces its internal energy and lowers its temperature from to .
- : isothermal compression at . Work done on the gas is rejected as heat to the cold heat bath, with .
- : insulated adiabatic compression, performed reversibly, raises the temperature back to and closes the cycle.
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