A piston has an external pressure of 5.00 atm. How much work has been done in joules if the cylinder goes from a volume of 0.120 liters to 0.610 liters?

1 Answer
Jul 17, 2016

This is an isobaric expansion. You take the equation for Work as defined as #W=PtriangleV#.

Explanation:

If you keep pressure constant, the gas is expanding from 0.120 L to 0.610 Liters. Take the change in Volumes and multiply it by pressure to get the work done.

In this case, the piston is doing work on the environment so it would lose E, and thus your answer should be a negative number.