Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST)

Faculty of Health, Natural Resources and Applied Sciences

School of Natural and Applied Sciences

Department of Biology, Chemistry and Physics

Lecturer: Dr V. Indongo

TPH601S: Thermal Physics

Assignment 1 (60 marks)

Due: 27 March 2024

1. In laboratory experiment, a student was aiming to identify an unknown liquid by measuring

its boiling point accurately. The only instrument available is an uncalibrated constant-
volume gas thermometer in which he/she measures the pressure (p) of the confined gas to
be 1.8 atm at the triple point of water. Then he/she brings the same confined gas to
equilibrium with the unknown boiling liquid and measure p = 2.4 atm.

(a) What is the temperature of vaporization on the Kelvin scale? (4)

(b) What is the temperature of vaporization on the Celsius scale? (2)

2. An oil truck driver loaded about 49 000 l of gasoline on a hot day in the UK, Liverpool. A
cold weather was encountered on his way to deliver the oil in Manchester, where the
temperature was 22 oC lower at the destination depot. The coefficient of volume expansion
for gasoline is 9.60 x 10 – 4/oC and the coefficient of linear expansion for steel tank is 11 x
10 – 6/oC. Determine the quantity of gasoline delivered in Manchester. (5)

3. Suppose that 20 g of ice and 35 g of water in thermal equilibrium are heated to 60°C by
being mixed with M kg of steam at 101°C. Use Lice melt. = 3.30 x 105 J/kg, Lwater vapo. = 2.30 x
106 J/kg, and cwater = 4.2 x 103 J/kg°C.

(a) Determine both mathematical expression and numerical value for heat gained by the ice-
and-water system Q1. (3)

(b) Write an expression for Q2, the heat lost by the steam. (3)

(c) Equate the sum of the expressions from (a) and (b) with zero, and find the value of M.
How much water will be in the final mixture? (4)

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4. A 15 litre tank contains 0.125 kg of helium gas at 20.0oC. The molar mass of helium gas is
4.00 g/mol.

(a) Determine the moles of helium gas in a tank. (3)

(b) What is the pressure of helium in a tank, in Pa and atm? (5)

5. Derivation from Ideal Gas equations: For a carbon dioxide gas (CO2), the constants in the
van der Waal’s equation are a = 0.364 J.m3/mol2 and b = 4.27 x 10 – 5 m3/mol, R = 8.31
Pa.m3/K.mol.

Ideal gas equation: PV = nRT ……………… equ. (1)

𝑎𝑛2
Van der Waal’s equation: (𝑃 + ) (𝑉 − 𝑛𝑏) = 𝑛𝑅𝑇 …………. equ. (2)
𝑉2

(a) If 3.00 moles of CO2 gas at 400 K is is confined to a volume of 450 cm3, find the
pressure P of the gas using both equations (1) and (2) above. (6)
(b) Which equation gives the lower pressure? What is the difference in these pressures?
(2)

6. The density of liquid water at 100°C and 1 atm (~ 105 Pa) is 1.00 x 103 kg/m3, and the heat
of vaporization, Hv = 2.30 x 106 J/kg. The density of water vapor under the same
conditions is 0.58 kg/m3.

(a) Consider 3.30 kg of water as the system. Calculate the change in volume, ∆V, during
isobaric vaporization. (4)

(b) Calculate the work done by the system on the surrounding atmosphere. Is this work
positive or negative? (4)

(c) Set up the first law for this problem and calculate internal energy change, ∆U. (5)

7. Prove that work done during an isothermal compression of an ideal gas from V1 to V2 is
𝑃
given by an expression: 𝑊 = 𝑛𝑅𝑇𝑙𝑛 𝑃2 (10)
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END!!!!!