An ideal gas goes from state to state via three different processes, as indicated in the - diagram. If indicates the heat absorbed by the gas along the three processes and indicates the change in internal energy along the three processes respectively, then:
and
and
and
and
Internal energy () is a state function, meaning its change depends only on the initial and final states, and is independent of the path taken. Since all three processes go from the same initial state to the same final state , the change in internal energy is the same for all three processes. Therefore, .
According to the first law of thermodynamics, . The work done () is equal to the area under the - curve. From the standard diagram for this problem, process 1 has the maximum area under the curve, followed by process 2, and then process 3. Thus, . Since is the same for all paths, the heat absorbed () will be directly proportional to the work done. Therefore, .
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