The First Principle of Thermodynamics and the Non-Separability of the Quantities "Work" and "Heat": The adiabatic piston controversy

2002/05/27 by Rodrigo de Abreu, de Abreu, Rodrigo
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #cond-mat.stat-mech

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0205566

10 pages, 3 figures

arxiv created 2002/05/27 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30

Abstract

The impossibility of separating into work and heat the energy transmitted between two subsystems through a movable piston is analyzed in this article. The process here described, although "quasi-static", is not reversible. It is shown that the First Principle, dU=dW+dQ, introduced by Clausius, does not generally allow a physical identification of dW and dQ, although dU=-pdV+TdS is verified along the equilibrium points of each subsystem.

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