A Carnot cycle, operating as a heat engine, consists , in the order given, of a.

ID: 1421487 • Letter: A

Question

A Carnot cycle, operating as a heat engine, consists , in the order given, of

a. an isothermal expansion, an isothermal compression, an adiabatic expansion and an adiabatic compression.

b. an adiabatic expansion, an adiabatic compression, an isothermal expansion and an isothermal compression.

c. an isothermal expansion, an adiabatic compression, an isothermal compression and an adiabatic expansion.

d. an adiabatic compression, an isothermal compression, an isothermal expansion and an adiabatic expansion.

e. an isothermal expansion, an adiabatic expansion, an isothermal compression and an adiabatic compression.

A carnot cylce is a theoretical thermodynamics cycle.

it provides an upper limit of efficiency that any thermodynamics engine can provide.

it consists of two isothermal and two adiabatic processes.

the processes in a carnot cycles are:

1. reversible isothermal expansion : increase of volume at constant temperature

so there is no change in internal energy and heat is supplied to the system which is utilised in doing work as expansion

2.adiabatic expansion:

the engine is thermally insulated so that no heat enters/leaves the system.

as work is done in expansion by the sytem, internal energy decreases and temperature of the system falls.

3.isothermal compression:

heat is released to the environment as the gas is being compressed with no change in internal energy.

4. adabatic compression:

heat interaction is 0 . work is done on the gas to compress so that internal energy increases and the system comes back to

the initial starting state.

hence option e is correct.

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