Question

A mixture of krypton and neon gas is compressed from a volume of 79.0L to a volume of 71.0L, while the pressure is held constant at 17.0atm. Calculate the work done on the gas mixture. Round your answer to 2 significant digits, and be sure it has the correct sign (positive or negative).

Answer 1

Using the fact that:

$W=P\Delta V$

We could replace our values as follows:

$\begin{gathered} W=17atm\cdot(71L-79L) \\ W=17atm\cdot(-8L) \\ W=-136J \end{gathered}$

As you can see, the work done is negative since the gas is being compressed. Therefore,

The work done is -136J.

In kJ, the answer is -0.136kJ. Rounded to 2 significant digits, this is -0.14kJ