Activity Overview
In this lesson, students will develop the equation for work by observing the relationship between volume change and work done in a cylinder and piston at constant pressure.
Objectives
- Students will observe how the relationship between a change in volume and the work that is done.
- Students will relate this information to a graph with a slope equal to the pressure of the system.
- Student will develop the equation for amount of work done when compressing a gas.
- Students will calculate the heat loss from the internal energy equation and the work done.
Vocabulary
- heatv
- height
- internal energy
- pressure
- radius
- volume
- work
About the Lesson
This lesson allows students to develop the equation for work by observing the relationship between volume change and work done in a cylinder and piston at constant pressure.
As a result, students will:
- Understand how to calculate work done.
- Measure work needed to change volume.
- Calculate heat loss given the total energy of a system.