Good Morning Tuesday
Dirty Redhead
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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 7,204
From: Commuting? I don't know what that means anymore.
Car Info: 05 WRX Wagon (Crystal Gray)
Originally Posted by LagnWagn
Oh Crap!!!!!!11!! Someone stole my pen, just as I was getting ready to do some work,,,now what...
Token Toyota Mod
iTrader: (50)
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 52,306
From: Palo Alto, CA
Car Info: Something german
It is typical for chemistry texts to write the first law as DU=Q+W. It is the same law, of course - the thermodynamic expression of the conservation of energy principle. It is just that W is defined as the work done on the system instead of work done by the system. In the context of physics, the common scenario is one of adding heat to a volume of gas and using the expansion of that gas to do work, as in the pushing down of a piston in an internal combustion engine. In the context of chemical reactions and process, it may be more common to deal with situations where work is done on the system rather than by it.



