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A thermodynamic system is a body of matter and/or radiation separate from its surroundings that can be studied using the laws of thermodynamics. Thermodynamic systems can be passive and active according to internal processes.
In thermodynamics, interactions between large ensembles of objects are studied and categorized. Central to this are the concepts of the thermodynamic system and its surroundings. A system is composed of particles, whose average motions define its properties, and those properties are in turn related to one another through equations of state.
In a closed system (i.e. there is no transfer of matter into or out of the system), the first law states that the change in internal energy of the system (ΔU system) is equal to the difference between the heat supplied to the system (Q) and the work (W) done by the system on its surroundings.
For thermodynamics, a natural process is a transfer between systems that increases the sum of their entropies, and is irreversible. [2] Natural processes may occur spontaneously upon the removal of a constraint, or upon some other thermodynamic operation , or may be triggered in a metastable or unstable system, as for example in the ...
When a system expands in an isobaric process, the thermodynamic work, , done by the system on the surroundings is the product, , of system pressure, , and system volume change, , whereas is said to be the thermodynamic work done on the system by the surroundings. The change in internal energy of the system is:
Often the surroundings of a thermodynamic system may also be regarded as another thermodynamic system. In this view, one may consider the system and its surroundings as two systems in mutual contact, with long-range forces also linking them. The enclosure of the system is the surface of contiguity or boundary between the two systems.
Thermodynamic work is one of the principal kinds of process by which a thermodynamic system can interact with and transfer energy to its surroundings. This results in externally measurable macroscopic forces on the system's surroundings, which can cause mechanical work, to lift a weight, for example, [1] or cause changes in electromagnetic, [2] [3] [4] or gravitational [5] variables.
In thermodynamics, a diathermal wall between two thermodynamic systems allows heat transfer but does not allow transfer of matter across it.. The diathermal wall is important because, in thermodynamics, it is customary to assume a priori, for a closed system, the physical existence of transfer of energy across a wall that is impermeable to matter but is not adiabatic, transfer which is called ...