Physics 112 (Fall 2018): Homework #1

A.E. Charman∗
Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley

(Dated: 08/23/2018; DUE 09/07/2018 [revision B])

Solutions to all required (i.e., non-practice) problems are due in the Physics 112 box in the LeConte
hallway before 6:00 pm on Friday, September 7, 2018. Remember that you will receive
points based on overall completeness, and also for a subset of problems that will be holistically
graded in detail based on content, presentation, and analysis. Problems or parts of problems
marked [PRACTICE] will not be graded, but are suggested for extra exploration or practice if
you wish. A request to “show” or “prove” a result is meant to elicit the sort of argument that
would satisfy a physicist, not necessarily a professional mathematician—cogent, reasonably clear
in logical direction, but not necessarily completely rigorous and explicit in all of the mathematical
minutiae.

I. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Andy’s office hours next week will be: Thursday 3 pm–4 pm, Friday 3–4 pm, or by appointment, in 429
Birge. Chris’s office hours will be: Wednesday 2–3 pm, and Friday, 2–3 pm, and Nico’s will be: Tuesday
11 am–12 pm, and Thursday 2–3 pm, all in 109 LeConte. When it is opened online, please complete the
online bCourses survey regarding student background and section times as soon as possible—and please
be honest and as flexible as possible regarding potential discussion section times....

II. READING

Required:

Read Adkins, Chapters 1, 3.1–3.6, 4 (available on bCourses). Read Reif, Chapters 4–5.

Recommended:

On bCourses: take a look at the the “Thematic Overview” section of the Course Policies handout,
the tentative Syllabus & Schedule, and finally the Homework Grading Rubric.
Read Sekerka, Chapters 1–3; Ford, Chapter 2; Tong, Chapter 4; Baierlein, Chapter 1;
Lavenda, Chapters 1–4; and/or Stowe, Chapters 12–13.
Suggested:

On bCourses: see Tips for Physics Problem-Solving to review some strategies and tactics for tackling
homework problems. If you are feeling a bit rusty, also consider reviewing the chapters on thermal
physics and ideal gases from your Physics 5 or 7 (or equivalent) textbook.

III. PROBLEMS [ WEIGHT = 120 ]

Some questions regarding fundamentals of classical thermodynamics, heat engines, and some behavior
of simple systems such as ideal and non-ideal gases. This material reflects what is being discussed in
class over the next two weeks, as well as reviewing what you learned in Physics 5 or Physics 7....

1. Suppose you drop your pencil on the floor while working at a desk on your problem set. Roughly
estimate the change in entropy of the universe well after the pencil comes to rest.

NOTE: An approximate, order-of-magnitude numerical estimate is what we are looking for here. But
briefly specify and justify any major approximations or assumptions you make.

∗ Electronic address: acharman@physics.berkeley.edu

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2. Basic Concepts and Terminology :

(a) For each process, characterized by the indicated constraints on some macroscopic state variables or
process quantities (denoted by their conventional symbols), choose from the following list the adjective
to best describe the process:

A. Adiabatic B. Isobaric C. Isothermal D. Isochoric E. Isentropic

i. ∆T = 0
ii. ∆V = 0
iii. ∆P = 0
iv. Qin = 0
v. ∆E = 0 for an ideal diatomic gas
vi. ∆S = 0
vii. Wby = 0 for a monatomic non-ideal gas
iix. sudden free expansion of a non-ideal gas in an insulated container

(b) Indicate whether each of the following macroscopic observables

for an ideal gas is INTENSIVE or EXTENSIVE according to the usual conventions:

i. volume INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE

ii. (absolute) pressure INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE
iii. temperature INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE
iv. number of molecules INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE
v. gauge pressure INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE
vi. entropy INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE
vii. specific heat at constant pressure INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE
iix. total heat capacity at fixed volume INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE
ix. total mass INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE
x. number density (i.e., chemical concentration) INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE
xi. mass density INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE
xii. work done during an isothermal expansion doubling volume INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE

(c) Indicate whether each of the following observables is best described

as a STATE VARIABLE or else as a PROCESS QUANTITY:

i. volume of an ideal gas STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY

ii. pressure of a van der Waals gas STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY
iii. work done by steam in a turbine STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY
iv. heat loss through windows STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY
v. entropy of your textbook STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY
vi. net heat flow in a jet engine STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY
vii. number density of air molecules in this room STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY
iix. volume of water in Lake Como STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY
ix. amount of snow that fell directly onto Lake Erie last year STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY
x. my cat’s weight STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY
xi. total number of calories consumed by my cat last year STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY
xii. the score of the 2018 World Cup Final* STATE VARIABLE / PROCESS QUANTITY

(NOTE: You may print out, complete, and submit this page as part of you homework, if convenient).
*This one may be debatable, depending on how you define the score. So debate with your colleagues.
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3. Some Thermodynamic Cycles: consider the reversible thermodynamic cycles shown below in the
associated indicator diagrams. The specific type of working fluid undergoing each cycle is not specified
(i.e., it should not necessarily be assumed to be an ideal gas) but can be assumed to have some well-
defined baric equation of state relting pressure, volume, and temperature at fixed particle number:

3P0

2P0

V0 5V0

Figure (i): Reversible thermodynamic cycle consisting of an ellipse in the Pressure-Volume plane

(a) In Figure (i), what is the magnitude of the net mechanical work performed on/by the system?

(b) Is this net work performed BY the system on its surroundings, or ON the system by its surroundings?

3T0

T0

S0 4S0 5S0

Figure (ii): Reversible thermodynamic cycle consisting of a triangle in the Temperature-Entropy plane

(c) In Figure (ii), what is the magnitude of the net heat flow into/out of the system?

(d) In Figure (ii), Is the net heat flow INTO the system from the surroundings, or OUT from the system
to the surroundings?

5T0

3T0

S0 7S0

Figure (iii): Reversible thermodynamic cycle consisting of a rectangle in the Temperature-Entropy plane

(e) In Figure (iii), what is the name for this thermodynamic cycle?

(f ) Should this cycle be traversed in the CLOCKWISE or COUNTER-CLOCKWISE sense to produce

a power cycle?

(g) What is the thermodynamic efficiency of an engine following this cycle?

(h) Should the cycle be traversed in the CLOCKWISE or COUNTER-CLOCKWISE sense to produce
a heat pump, or refrigeration, cycle?

(i) If used as a heat pump, what is the resulting coefficient of (heat pump) performance?

(j) If used as a refrigerator, what is the resulting coefficient of (refrigerator) performance?

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4. The van der Waals equation of state is perhaps the best-known approximate equation of state for a
non-ideal gas, but various other parameterized functional forms for gas-phase

equations of state have also
been suggested. Calculate (i) the isothermal compressibility κT = − V1 ∂V∂P T,N and (ii) the (volumetric)
1 ∂V


expansivity αV = V ∂T P,N (also known as the coefficient of thermal expansion) for:

kB T a
(a) a fluid governed by the Berthelot equation of state, given by: P = V − V2
, for some constant
N −b T N2
parameters a and b; and then
aN
−
e kB T V
(b) a gas following the Dieterici equation of state: P = kT V , for some fixed parameters a and b
N −b
(not necessarily the same in the two different cases). Yes, you can use a program like Mathematica or
MATLAB if you wish.

Notice that both equations of state reduce to the ideal gas law in the limit where a → 0 and b → 0.
So as a good sanity check, verify explicitly that your answers for the response functions reduce to the
ideal-gas results in this limit.

HINT: it will be easier if you do NOT try to solve explicitly for V (T, P, N ), but use implicit differentiation.

5. An air conditioner maintains a house at a temperature TL by pumping heat into the ambient outside
air, assumed to be at a higher temperature TH . In the absence of the air conditioner, suppose that the
heat flux from outside to inside (due to imperfect insulation) is given by a(TH − TL ), for some constant
coefficient a. If the power supplied to the air conditioner is P , and it operates fully reversibly, determine
the steady-state inside temperature TL in terms of P , TH , and a.

6. Fred has the idea to improve the efficiency of a certain heat engine exploiting a high-temperature
reservoir, by using part of its output to run a refrigerator which cools a low-temperature (finite-sized)
heat sink to a temperature below the environmental temperature. Fiona tells Fred that his efforts are
futile. Who is correct? In particular, what can you say about the overall efficiency of Fred’s scheme,
assuming everything operates reversibly?

7. A 20 watt light bulb is left burning inside a refrigerator operating on a reverse Carnot cycle. If the
refrigerator also draws 20 watts of electrical power to operate its condenser, can it cool its interior below
room temperature while the bulb is on? Explain why or why not.

8. [PRACTICE] A geothermal power plant aims to extract work from a porous hot rock by injecting
water into the rock and using the steam to drive a turbine. If the mass of the rock is M , its relevant heat
capacity is a constant C, and its initial temperature is Ti , at most, how much energy can be extracted
from the rock if the only heat sink is the ambient atmosphere, assumed to remain at a fixed temperature
T0 which is lower than Ti ?

9. An ideal gas is contained within a cylinder sealed at one end and equipped at the other end with a
frictionless piston, of cross-sectional area A and exposed on its outer face to the ambient atmosphere,
assumed to remain at a fixed pressure P0 . In complete thermodynamic equilibrium, the piston is located
a distance L0 from the closed, fixed end. Suppose the gas is compressed (or rarefied) by displacing
the piston by x from its equilibrium location. Ignoring gravity and assuming the piston always moves
quasi-statically, find the restoring force on the piston under such a displacement, assuming:

(a) the cylinder is immersed in a heat bath at temperature T0 ; or (b) the cylinder and piston are instead
thermally insulated.

(c) Can you think of any situations where such a system might be preferred to standard steel spring?
Why? Would it actually be possible to thermally but not mechanically isolate the piston, as in part (b)?
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10. The idealized Stirling Cycle consists of a reversible closed path of four segments: (i) an isothermal
expansion, (ii) an isochoric cooling, (iii) an isothermal compression, and (iv) an isochoric heating. (This
cycle is described as idealized not just because it is assumed to be quasistatic, but also because actual
Stirling engines would tend to follow a more rounded path in the P V plane, even ignoring irreversibilities.
Real Stirling engines are known for their relatively simple design and, if carefully manufactured, ability
to exploit small temperature differences).

Assume a working fluid, consisting of N particles of an ideal gas with adiabatic index γ and per-particle
mass m, is arranged to undergo an idealized Stirling power cycle. In particular, suppose the gas starts
at TH , V1 , and expands to a volume V2 at its most dilute, and reaches a temperature TL at its coldest
point along the cycle.

(a) Find the thermodynamic engine efficiency η, defined as the ratio of the net work done by the
working fluid divided by the sum of all heat flows into the working fluid. That is, use the net work
in the numerator, but count all and only the positive heat flows into the system in the denominator
— the total energy that has at some point during the cycle entered the system as heat. (This is the
definition of efficiency presumed, for example, in Giancoli’s introductory physics text, if you used that
for Physics 7B). Try to express your answer as simply as possible, remembering that the efficiency must
be a dimensionless number.

(b) However, notice that the heat that flows into the system at a certain temperature along the isochoric
heating leg flows out of the system at the same temperature along the isochoric cooling stage. So in
effect this energy is only borrowed, and is returned to the surroundings without any thermodynamic
degradation, as it leaves the system at the same temperature as it entered, and therefore with the same
entropy and the same availability to do subsequent work.

Hence many authors instead define the efficiency of the Stirling cycle as the ratio η 0 of the net work done
by the system to the sum (or integral) of all net-positive heat flows at each temperature.

Calculate the efficiency according to this alternate definition. That is, use the net work in the numerator,
but in the denominator use only heat flows into the system that are not balanced by heat flows out of
the system at an equal (or higher) temperature.

HINT: think of the entire cycle as the sum of infinitesimally thin STIRLING cycles, at successively lower
temperatures along the isothermal stages and with infinitesimal isochoric stages.

(c) Briefly assess the relevance of the two different definitions of efficiency. Why might we care about
both notions? Who might care most about which definition?

HINT: think about both the long-run operating costs of such an engine used in a power plant, versus
the construction/start-up costs of the power plant.

11. As discussed in class, a perpetual motion machine of the second kind (that is, a device which could
absorb heat from a single heat reservoir and delivers work, without any other permanent macroscopic
change to the universe) would be quite useful, were it not for the inconvenient fact of it violating the
Second Law:

(a) Search the internet in order to estimate the following: the average temperature of the Earth’s oceans,
the amount (mass) of water in the oceans, the specific heat capacity of salt water, and the total annual
energy used (chemical fuel, plus other electrical) by the human population, as of 2018.

(b) If heat could be extracted from the oceans and converted entirely to work, estimate how many years
of present human energy needs could be satisfied by lowering the temperature of the ocean by a single
degree celsius.
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12. [PRACTICE] The internal energy of a monoatomic van der Waals gas is given by

E(T, N, V ) = N 23 kB T − aN


V

for some constant a (parameterizing long-range attractive forces between the atoms). Initially, one mole
of the gas is at a temperature T1 and occupies a volume V1 in an insulated container. A valve is opened
and the gas is then allowed to suddenly but adiabatically expand into a larger, initially empty and
insulated container, so that the total volume becomes V2 . After the gas is allowed to settle to a new
thermal equilibrium, what is the final temperature T2 ? HINT: your answer will depend on V1 , V2 , the
parameter a, and Avogadro’s number NA .

13. [PRACTICE] Near the Earth’s surface, N molecules of an ideal gas are placed inside an otherwise
empty canister with a movable, frictionless piston on the top, on which we can pile sand. The whole
system is in thermal contact with a heat reservoir at temperature T .

Initially, the gas is in thermal and mechanical equilibrium at a volume Vi .

First, suppose by adding sand one grain at a time, we very slowly take the system quasi-statically from
volume Vi to a smaller volume Vf :

(a) What is the final temperature? What is the final pressure?

(b) How much work Wrev is done on the gas during this compression?

INSTEAD, suppose we add the same amount of sand, but all at once, and then wait while the system
comes to a new equilibrium:

(c) What is the final temperature? What is the final pressure?

(d) How much work Wirr is done on the gas during this process?

(e) Show explicitly that the work done in the latter, irreversible process is greater than the work done
in the reversible compression.

14. [PRACTICE] Reif, Problem 5.9

15. [PRACTICE] Reif, Problem 5.17

16. [PRACTICE] Reif, Problem 5.18

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17. Sketch a Venn diagram to illustrate the connections and distinctions between the following concepts:
reversible, irreversible, quasistatic, isentropic, adiabatic. Suggest an example of a thermodynamic process
within each distinct region in your diagram. Where does the process of slowly squeezing toothpaste out
of a tube lie on your diagram? What about the process of you climbing the stairs in LeConte Hall at
fixed speed?

NOTE: the word “adiabatic” has several different meanings in physics: here we will take it to mean that
no heat transfer occurs between system and environment.

18. [PRACTICE] Consider one mole of a non-ideal gas with equation of state given by
a
(p + V 2 )(V − b) = RT,
where a and b are some fixed positive constants, and R is the universal gas constant.

What is the equation of state for n moles of the same gas?

Do not just guess. First try to infer the answer just by thinking directly about dimensional analysis
and intensive and extensive quantities. Then confirm your conclusion, by picturing more explicitly a
system of n moles of gas at temperature Tn , pressure Pn , and total volume Vn , consisting of n “blobs”
of the molar gas, lying adjacent to each other, under conditions where each blob obeys the above molar
equation of state, but neighboring blobs are in thermodynamic equilibrium with each other.

19. Again consider one mole of this non-ideal gas, with equation of state given by
a
(p + V 2 )(V − b) = RT,
where a and b are some fixed positive numerical constants, and R is the universal gas constant. Suppose
that a constant-volume thermometer is made using this gas, while a second constant-volume gas ther-
mometer is constructed using one mole of a different gas which obeys the ideal gas law: pV = RT . The
thermometers are calibrated so as to agree at two points, say the freezing and boiling points of water at
atmospheric pressure. Show that the thermometers will give identical readings for all temperatures (over
some operating range), when in each thermometer, the entire gas in question is assumed to equilibrate
with the system whose temperature is to be measured.

HINT: in practice, a constant-volume gas thermometer looks something like this:

FIG. 1 A constant-volume gas thermometer measures changes in temperature by measuring changes in pressure
of a fixed amount of a reference gas kept at a fixed volume. In this design, the pressure above the mercury
column is also assumed to be fixed (at, say, atmospheric pressure), the mercury is assumed to be incompressible,
and all the containers and tubing are inextensible. The gas is not necessarily assumed to be perfectly ideal.

20. [PRACTICE] In your own words, define carefully what we mean by a “reversible process” in classical
thermodynamics. If you do invoke the concept of “hysteresis” in your definition, also explain what that
means. Why are all real-world physical processes not reversible?