Name: __________________________ JC 2 Courage (AY 2016-17)

Concepts and Example problems on the First Law of Thermodynamics

1. 5000 J of heat are added to two moles of an ideal monatomic gas, initially at a
temperature of 500 K, while the gas performs 7500 J of work.
What is the final temperature of the gas?

2. Compute the internal energy change and temperature change for the two processes
involving 1 mole of an ideal monatomic gas.
(a) 1500 J of heat are added to the gas and the gas does no work and no
work is done on the gas

(b) 1500 J of work are done on the gas and the gas does no work
and no heat is added or taken away from the gas

3. What quantities appear in the first law of thermodynamics?

A. force, mass, acceleration
B. inertia, torque, angular momentum
C. work, heat, thermal energy (a.k.a internal energy)
D. work, heat, entropy
E. enthalpy, entropy, heat
4. What is the name of an ideal-gas process in which no heat is transferred?
A. Isochoric
B. Isentropic
C. Isothermal
D. Isobaric
E. Adiabatic
Isentropic? Adiabatic? Things that you should know ... read on
2

An adiabatic process is one that occurs

without transfer of heat or matter between
a thermodynamic system and its
surroundings.
5. Heat is
A. the amount of thermal energy in an object.
B. the energy that moves from a hotter object to a colder object.
C. a fluid-like substance that flows from a hotter object to a colder object.
D. both A and B.
E. both B and C.
6. The thermal behaviour of water is characterized by the value of its
A. heat density.
B. heat constant.
C. specific heat.
D. thermal index

7. A 50.0 g aluminium disk at 300 C is placed in 200 cm3 of ethyl alcohol at

10.0 C and then quickly removed. The aluminium temperature is found to have
dropped to 120 C. What is the new temperature of the ethyl alcohol?
s.h.c. of aluminium = 900 J kg-1 K-1 ; s.h.c of ethyl alcohol = 2400 J kg-1 K-1;
density of ethyl alcohol = 790 kg m-3.
Phase Change and Heat of Transformation
A phase change is characterized by a change in internal energy (thermal energy)
without a change in temperature.
The amount of heat energy that causes 1 kg of substance to undergo a phase
change is called the heat of transformation of that substance.
Two specific heats of transformation are :o the latent heat of fusion Lf, the heat of transformation between a solid and a
liquid (and vice-versa),
o the latent heat of vaporization Lv, the heat of transformation between a
liquid and a gas (and vice-versa).

A cylinder contains 7.0 g of nitrogen gas. How much work must be done to compress the
gas at a constant temperature of 80 C until the volume is halved.
How much heat is required to change 200 mL of ice at 20 C (a typical freezer
temperature) into steam?