Lab 1: Heat Engines Experiment

Date: 7/11/2014
Group members:
1. Nam
2. Kat
3. May
4. Ging
5. Petch
6. Jenny
Section: 11-01

Objective:
- Design and create a thermodynamic system consisting of a flask, tubing,
syringe, and pressure sensor.
- Collect pressure, volume and temperature data for three for a thermodynamic process.
- Analyze the various P-V processes to keep track of the work (W) done by or on the
enclosed gas and the heat (Q) transferred between the gas and the surroundings.
- Use the first law of thermodynamics to account for the change in internal energy in
each of these processes.

Syring
Temperature Probe
(or using
thermometer)

Gas
Pressure

Beak
Erlenmey
er Flask
Hot Water

Materials:
- Vernier data-collection interface
- Lab Quest App
- Vernier Gas Pressure Sensor
- Thermometer
- 125-mL Erlenmeyer flask
- 600-mL beaker
- Supply of hot and cold water
Procedure:
1. Place flask with syringe in 600-mL beaker, set the volume as 0 mL, and measure the
temperature of the beaker and gas pressure in the flask using LabQuest.
2. Place the flask with syringe in 600-mL beaker, pour 500 mL of hot water into the beaker.
Record the temperature, gas pressure and volume.
3. Pull the syringe to 4-mL, 8-mL, 12-mL, 16-mL and 20-mL respectively to increase volume,
and record the volume, pressure and temperature every variation.
4. Remove the flask from the beaker with hot water and place it outside at room temperature.
Always record the temperature, pressure and volume.
5. When it reaches the room temperature, decrease the volume to 16-mL, 12-mL, 8-mL, 4-mL
and 0-mL respectively. Record the volume, pressure and temperature every variation.

Result:
PV Graph Of The Thermodynamic System

Temperature vs. Volume Graph Of The Thermodynamic System

Evaluation Of Data:
1)

1) Isothermal
Expansion

4) Isochoric
Heating
2) Isochoric
Cooling

3) Isothermal
Compression

Step

Process

Q (Heat)

W (Work)

1
2
3
4

Isothermal Expansion
Isochoric Cooling
Isothermal Compression
Isochoric Heating

+
No change
No change

No change
+
No change

Internal
Energy
No change
No change
+

2) What does the area under the PV curve in the isothermal process represent? Explain
why the sign of this quantity is different in these two processes.
=>According to the equation W = PV, the area under the PV curve represents work done on
or done by the system. The shaded area represents the total work done by the system since the
area under the PV curve in isothermal expansion process, which presents the work done by a
system (-W) deducted by the area under the PV curve in isothermal compression process,
which represents the work done to system (+W) during the compression. Also, due to this
reason, the sign of this quantity is different; work done by the system in isothermal expansion
process is negative sign while work done on the system in isothermal compression process is
positive sign.

Work done by
the system

3) Explain how the internal energy of the system remains constant during the isothermal
processes.
=>During the isothermal processes, the temperature of the system remains constant because
of the high temperature reservoir (hot water) and the low temperature reservoir (room
temperature) that helps to maintain the temperature. When there is no change in the
temperature, gas molecules inside will move at constant speed, so there is no change in
kinetic energy, too. Therefore, the internal energy of the system remains constant.

Conclusion
In the experiment, when we pull the syringe up to increase volume, the isothermal
expansion is happen. The volume increase, pressure decrease, temperature same. When the
pressure continue to decrease while the volume is constant, and the temperature decrease, this
is isochoric cooling. When we push the syringe down to decrease the volume, the isothermal
compression is happen. The volume decrease, pressure increase, temperature same. When the
pressure decrease, volume is constant, temperature increase, this is isochoric heating.