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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.
The second law has been expressed in many ways. Its first formulation, which preceded the proper definition of entropy and was based on caloric theory, is Carnot's theorem, formulated by the French scientist Sadi Carnot, who in 1824 showed that the efficiency of conversion of heat to work in a heat engine has an upper limit.
Energy shares the same unit of measurement with work (Joules) because the energy from the object doing work is transferred to the other objects it interacts with when work is being done. [17] The work–energy principle states that an increase in the kinetic energy of a rigid body is caused by an equal amount of positive work done on the body ...
The flow of heat is a form of energy transfer. Heat transfer is the natural process of moving energy to or from a system, other than by work or the transfer of matter. In a diathermal system, the internal energy can only be changed by the transfer of energy as heat: =. Combining these principles leads to one traditional statement of the first ...
Transfers of energy as work, or as heat, or of matter, between the system and the surroundings, take place through the walls, according to their respective permeabilities. Matter or energy that pass across the boundary so as to effect a change in the internal energy of the system need to be accounted for in the energy balance equation.
Energy can broadly be classified into kinetic, due to a body's motion, and potential, due to a body's position relative to others. Thermal energy , the energy carried by heat flow, is a type of kinetic energy not associated with the macroscopic motion of objects but instead with the movements of the atoms and molecules of which they are made.
A contact equilibrium may be regarded also as an exchange equilibrium. There is a zero balance of rate of transfer of some quantity between the two systems in contact equilibrium. For example, for a wall permeable only to heat, the rates of diffusion of internal energy as heat between the two systems are equal and opposite.
The thermodynamic free energy is the amount of work that a thermodynamic system can perform. Enthalpy is a thermodynamic potential, designated by the letter "H", that is the sum of the internal energy of the system (U) plus the product of pressure (P) and volume (V). Joule is a unit to quantify energy, work, or the amount of heat. [2]