Natural Sciences Division

Fullerton College
Physics 223 Fall 2017
Instructor: Brian Shotwell

Exam 2, TEST FORM C

Exam worth 100 points: 10(2) + 2(15) = 50 (actually 1 extra credit point possible, so 51)
September 26, 2017

1. In the wintertime, you keep the inside of your house at 68 F and the outside is 28 F. You have glass
windows of a certain thickness, and to insulate your house even more you put up some wood covering the
inside of the glass windows as well (of the same thickness as your glass windows). What is the equilibrium
temperature at the wood-glass interface? Take kglass = 0.8 W/(m K) and kwood = 0.08 W/(m K).
A) 64 F
B) 32 F
C) 46 F
D) 58 F
E) None of the above.

2. Youre designing a thermometer that works based on the thermal expansion of mercury. You want the
thermometer to be shaped like a very thin cylinder, and youd like markings every 1.0mm to correspond
to temperature changes of 1.0 C. If you have a total volume of 1.0mL of mercury to use, what should be
the radius of your cylinder? (assume the cylinder is made of a material such that it does not expand upon
heating). The coefficient of volume expansion of mercury is 18 10 5 / C.
A) 0.4mm
B) 0.05mm
C) 0.8mm
D) 0.1mm
E) 0.2mm

3. You have a balloon at room temperature containing air (nitrogen gas N2 and oxygen gas O2 ). An oxygen
molecule has more mass than a nitrogen molecule. Which of the following statements is true of the nitrogen
and oxygen molecules?
A) The oxygen molecules are moving the same speed as the nitrogen molecules, but neither are rotating.
B) The oxygen molecules are moving slower than the nitrogen molecules, and both are rotating.
C) The oxygen molecules are moving faster than the nitrogen molecules, and both are rotating.
D) The oxygen molecules are moving the same speed as than the nitrogen molecules, and both are rotating.
E) The oxygen molecules are moving slower than the nitrogen molecules, but neither are rotating.

1
4. What is the rms-speed of nitrogen molecules in your car tires? Note a molecule of nitrogen has mass 28.0
grams/mol. Take the absolute pressure of gas in your tires to be 3.0 atm and take the temperature to be 37
degrees C.
A) 680 m/s.
B) 470 m/s.
C) 1070 m/s.
D) 1320 m/s.
E) 525 m/s.

5. Three identical gas-cylinder systems expand from the same initial state to final states that have the same
volume. One system expands isothermally, one adiabatically, and one isobarically. The process
has the most heat added to the gas and the process has the least heat added.
A) Isothermal, Adiabatic.
B) Isothermal, Isobaric.
C) Isobaric, Adiabatic.
D) Adiabatic, Isothermal.
E) Adiabatic, Isobaric.

6. The icecaps of Greenland and Antarctica contain about 1.75% of the total water (by mass) on the earths
surface; the oceans contain about 97.5%, and the other 0.75% is mainly groundwater. Suppose the icecaps,
currently at an average temperature of about 30 C, somehow slid into the ocean and melted. What would
be the resulting temperature change of the ocean? Assume that the average temperature of ocean water is
currently 5.00 C. Recall Lf = 334 J/g, cwater = 4.187 J/(g K), and cice = 2.108 J/(g K).
A) 2.99 C
B) 2.02 C
C) 1.76 C
D) 1.33 C

7. The figure below shows where the freezing and boiling points of carbon dioxide are on three dierent
temperature scales. A temperature of 450 U equals which of the following?

A) 140 R
B) 190 R
C) 220 R
D) 220 S
E) 190 S

2
8. Consider making the following changes to a fixed amount of gas: I. increasing the volume of the gas
(keeping T constant); II. increasing the pressure of the gas (keeping T constant); and III. increasing the
temperature of the gas (keeping V constant). Which of these changes would make the ideal gas law less
accurate (increasing the importance of using the van der waals equation instead)?
A) Situation II only.
B) Situation I only.
C) Situations I and III only.
D) Situation III only.
E) Situations I and II only.

9. A sample of an ideal gas is taken through the cyclic process abca shown in the figure below (abca). The
pressures satisfy pb = 3pac . Which is the following is TRUE concerning this cycle?

A) The heats extracted from the gas during bc and ca are equal.
B) Positive work is done by the gas during ca.
C) The internal energy change of the gas is positive for bc
D) The entropy of the gas is highest at state b.
E) The temperature of the gas increases from c to a.

10. A gas is initially at temperature T0 and pressure P0 . If the gas undergoes an isothermal expansion to
twice its initial volume, what are the final temperature and pressure of the gas?
A) Temperature (1/2)T0 and pressure (1/2)P0 .
B) Temperature 2T0 and pressure P0 .
C) Temperature T0 and pressure (1/2)P0 .
D) Temperature T0 and pressure P0 .
E) Temperature T0 and pressure 2P0 .

End of Multiple Choice Section

3
11. If you look at the molar heat capacity for several solids, youll notice they all have a value 3R:

a) If you wanted to increase the temperature of a 1.00-kg bar of copper (63.5 g/mol) by 10.0 C, how much
heat would you have to deliver to it? (5 points)

b) It was not stated whether this was actually the molar heat capacity at constant volume or constant
pressure. It actually doesnt matter why not? Explain. (5 points)

c) Using the equipartition theorem, find the number of degrees of freedom for each molecule. How many
of these are translational, rotational, and vibrational? (5 points)

12. Label each of the following statements as either TRUE or FALSE. For each, give some sort of explanation,
whether through counterexample, by using a PV diagram, etc.

a) In an isochoric process where the pressure of the gas increases, heat is added to the gas. (4 points)

b) A gas can expand while also releasing heat to its surroundings. (4 points)

c) When a gas expands isothermally, the entropy of the gas goes up. (4 points)

d) The 2nd law of thermodynamics implies that it is impossible for work to be directly converted to heat
(without some heat as input as well). (4 points)

End of Free Response Section