A cylinder with a moving piston expands from an initial volume of 0.250 L against an external pressure of 2.00 atm. The expansion does 288 J of work on the surroundings. What is the final volume of the cylinder?
1 Answer
Jul 10, 2016
This is asking you to apply the definition of reversible work:
w_"rev" = -P int_(V_1)^(V_2) dV
= -P (V_2 - V_1) = -"288 J"
Since the gas did work,
Note that your pressure is in
("0.082057 L"cdot"atm")/"8.314472 J"
Therefore, to solve for
color(blue)(V_2) = -(w_"rev")/P + V_1
= -(-"288" cancel("J") xx ("0.082057 L"cdotcancel("atm"))/("8.314472" cancel("J")))/("2.00" cancel("atm")) + "0.250 L"
~~ color(blue)("1.67 L")