3. an ideal gas is initially at a certain pressure and volume. it expands until its volume is four times the initial volume. this is done through an isobaric, an isothermal, and an adiabatic process, respectively. during which of the processes …. a) …is the work done by the gas greatest? b) … is the smallest amount of work done by the gas? c) … does the internal energy increase? d) …does the internal energy decrease? e)… does the largest amount of heat flow into the gas? hint: you may want to sketch a p-v diagram.

The gas does work on the outside world, as this force moves the piston through some distance. Heat transfer to the gas cylinder results in work being done. To repeat this process, the piston needs to be returned to its starting point. Heat transfer now occurs from the gas to the surroundings so that its pressure decreases, and a force is exerted by the surroundings to push the piston back through some distance. Variations of this process are employed daily in hundreds of millions of heat engines. We will examine heat engines in detail in the next section. In this section, we consider some of the simpler underlying processes on which heat engines are based.

what was the answer?

d. air pressure decreases as altitude increases.