Physics: Internal Energy and Work

Objectives

• Students will observe how the relationship between a change in volume and the work that is done.
• Students will relate this information to a graph with a slope equal to the pressure of the system.
• Student will develop the equation for amount of work done when compressing a gas.
• Students will calculate the heat loss from the internal energy equation and the work done.

Vocabulary

• heatv
• height
• internal energy
• pressure
• radius
• volume
• work

About the Lesson

This lesson allows students to develop the equation for work by observing the relationship between volume change and work done in a cylinder and piston at constant pressure.
As a result, students will:

• Understand how to calculate work done.
• Measure work needed to change volume.
• Calculate heat loss given the total energy of a system.