Expansion of a system

[Chase Yonamine 1J]

How can one tell if a system is expanding or not? What criteria do we look for?

[Ashley Zhu 1A]

If a system is doing work, it is usually expanding unless the problem specifically states that the system is at constant volume.

[megan blatt 2B]

A system is expanding if the system is doing work. You can tell that it is expanding if w is negative because this means the system is losing energy through doing work.

[Gracie Ge 2E]

you can think of expansion (as in when w is negative) as the system doing something. sometimes the problems would say "system undergoes expansion" but actually it's up to you to figure out whether it's w<0 or not.

[Kenan Kherallah 2C]

Expansion relates to an increase in volume occupied (which corrolates to an increase in number of moles)

[Brian Chang 2H]

A system is typically expanding when it is doing work.

This is usually denoted by a negative (w) value as work is being done BY the system, so therefore energy is leaving the system.

[Pritish Patil 1K]

You can tell when work is being done and the volume of the system is changing.

[Rhea Churi 4K]

Volume increases and system does work are ways to tell if expansion is happening.

[MariaJohn1D]

Is compression also a form of work?