Chapter 19, Problem 19.61P

DATA You place a quantity of gas into a metal cylinder that has a movable piston at one end. No gas leaks out of the cylinder as the piston moves. The external force applied to the piston can be varied to change the gas pressure as you move the piston to change the volume of the gas. A pressure gauge attached to the interior wall of the cylinder measures the gas pressure, and you can calculate the volume of the gas from a measurement of the piston’s position in the cylinder.

  You start with a pressure of 1.0 atm and a gas volume of 3.0 L. Holding the pressure constant, you increase the volume to 5.0 L. Then, keeping the volume constant at 5.0 L, you increase the pressure to 3.0 atm. Next you decrease the pressure linearly as a function of volume until the volume is 3.0 L and the pressure is 2.0 atm. Finally, you keep the volume constant at 3.0 L and decrease the pressure to 1.0 atm, returning the gas to its initial pressure and volume. The walls of the cylinder are good conductors of heat, and you provide the required heat sources and heat sinks so that the necessary heat flows can occur. At these relatively high pressures, you suspect that the ideal-gas equation will not apply with much accuracy. You don’t know what gas is in the cylinder or whether it is monatomic, diatomic, or polyatomic. (a) Plot the cycle in the pV-plane. (b) What is the net heat flow for the gas during this cycle? Is there net heat flow into or out of the gas?