How do you calculate work for isothermal processes?

1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Jul 18, 2017

The basic premise is constant temperature. For ideal gases, the change in internal energy #U# is a function of ONLY temperature. From the first law of thermodynamics, we must have:

#overbrace(cancel(DeltaU))^("0 for "DeltaT = 0) = q + w#

And the work #w# done by or on the system is equal to the heat flow #q# into or out from the system, respectively:

#ul(w = -q)#

[This is the simplest case, and is shown here in further detail.](https://socratic.org/questions/what-is-reversible-isothermal-expansion)

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