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The ancient Greek understanding of physics was limited to the statics of simple machines (the balance of forces), and did not include dynamics or the concept of work. During the Renaissance the dynamics of the Mechanical Powers, as the simple machines were called, began to be studied from the standpoint of how far they could lift a load, in addition to the force they could apply, leading ...
The work can be done, for example, by electrochemical devices (electrochemical cells) or different metals junctions [clarification needed] generating an electromotive force. Electric field work is formally equivalent to work by other force fields in physics, [1] and the formalism for electrical work is identical to that of mechanical work.
PV work is an important topic in chemical thermodynamics. For a process in a closed system, occurring slowly enough for accurate definition of the pressure on the inside of the system's wall that moves and transmits force to the surroundings, described as quasi-static, [30] [31] work is represented by the following equation between differentials:
In solid-state physics, the work function (sometimes spelled workfunction) is the minimum thermodynamic work (i.e., energy) needed to remove an electron from a solid to a point in the vacuum immediately outside the solid surface. Here "immediately" means that the final electron position is far from the surface on the atomic scale, but still too ...
The joule (/ dʒ uː l / JOOL, or / dʒ aʊ l / JOWL; symbol: J) is the unit of energy in the International System of Units (SI). [1] It is equal to the amount of work done when a force of one newton displaces a mass through a distance of one metre in the direction of that force.
One of the fundamental thermodynamic equations is the description of thermodynamic work in analogy to mechanical work, or weight lifted through an elevation against gravity, as defined in 1824 by French physicist Sadi Carnot.
Other work terms are added on per system requirements. [11] Each quantity in the equations above can be divided by the amount of substance, measured in moles, to form molar Gibbs free energy. The Gibbs free energy is one of the most important thermodynamic functions for the characterization of a system.
Should the work be added in such a way that friction or viscous forces are operating within the system, then the process is not isentropic, and if there is no phase change, then the temperature of the system will rise, the process is said to be "irreversible", and the work added to the system is not entirely recoverable in the form of work.