A rigid vessel of negligible heat capacity holds of argon

PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Thermal, Statistical & Complex Systems · The laws of thermodynamics · The laws of thermodynamics

Thermal Physics, Ch The second law, entropy and irreversibility

Problem

A rigid vessel of negligible heat capacity holds

0.400\,\mathrm{mol}

of argon, treated as an ideal monatomic gas with constant heat capacity

C_V = \tfrac{3}{2}nR

. The gas is initially at

600\,\mathrm{K}

. The vessel is lowered into a large water bath at

300\,\mathrm{K}

, so large that its temperature does not change, and left until the gas is also at

300\,\mathrm{K}

. The volume of the gas is fixed throughout and the vessel walls do no work. ((a)) Find the entropy change of the gas. ((b)) Find the entropy change of the bath. ((c)) Find the total entropy change of gas plus bath. ((d)) The bath is the coldest body available. Find the work lost in this process.

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