work

[emmaferry2D]

to clarify,
when work is done ON the system, it is negative and when work is done BY the system it is positive?

[EnricoArambulo3H]

It would be the opposite, if work was done on the system w>0. Think of the idea in terms of compression and expansion: you need to put energy into the system to compress it (positive work/work done onto the system), while a vessel would need to perform work on its own to expand (negative work/work done by system). I hope this helps!

[Massimo_Capozza_1G]

If energy or "work" is released from the system, it is an exothermic process, but if energy or work is put into the system then it is endothermic

[Katie_Dinh_1D]

work would be negative if it is done by the system—the system is losing energy because it is doing work. Likewise, if work is being applied to the system, this would be a positive value since the system is gaining energy in the form of work!

[Ephrem Gerald 2A]

When work is done on the system, you are inputting energy so the sign of the work would be positive, and if the system itself is doing work (such as to raise a piston) it loses energy in the process because it requires some force and some amount of energy to push an object like a piston for example.

[Chudi Onyedika 3A]

If work is done on the system, the sign is positive. If the system itself does work, then the sign becomes negative.

[Charisma Arreola 2F]

An exothermic reaction has energy escaping, whereas endothermic takes in energy and heat.

[Wasila Sun 2I]

Work done on the system is positive, and work done BY the system is negative. This is because when the system is doing work it spends/loses energy to expand against exteral pressure so it would be negative. The opposite is true because energy is then inputted into the system when work is being done on it.

[manisha_joseph_1H]

When work is done on the system, the value of w is positive, When work is done by the system, the value of w is negative.

[Arnav Saud 2C]

When work is done on the system, it's positive.
When the system does work, it's negative.

[Bai Rong Lin 2K]

I believe it is the exact opposite to what you have stated in the question.

[Mina Tadros 3L]

When work is done on the system, the work is positive, but when the system does work, the work is negative.

[Kushaal Madadi 2F]

Nope, it is the opposite. In chemistry, we take the perspective of the system. When a system does work, it is losing internal energy, and so work is negative. When work is done on a system, its internal energy increases, so work is positive.

[Hannah Lechtzin 1K]

Its actually the other way around. When work is done by the system it releases energy (negative). When work is done on the system the system is being given energy (positive). One way I think about it is if I do school work, I am turning in my assignments (losing them, negative). If I am being given school work, I am gaining more assignments (gaining them, positive). I know school work is unrelated to chemistry definitions, but sometimes it nice to have another way to think about things like that.

[IshanModiDis2L]

When work is done on the system, the work is a positive value. When the system itself does work, the work is negative.

[Jack_Pearce_2H]

actually, when work is done on the system it is positive and when it is done by the system it is negative. I know it is a weird way to look at it but I like to think work is being "lost" by the system when it is being DONE by the system, and vice versa. When work is being done ON the system, work is "gained" by the system. It might not make a lot of sense but if you can establish the signs through this logic its easier to apply the equations later on and solve for other components.

[Mariah Disc 2C]

It is the opposite !

[Chinmayi Mutyala 3H]

When work is done on the system, it is positive and when work is done BY the system it is negative since the system is using energy to do work. Hope that makes sense!

[Susan Chamling 1F]

I believe it's actually the opposite, so when work is being done by the system, it is negative since the system loses energy. In contrast, when work is being done on the system, it is positive since the system gains energy.

[Jeremy Wei 2C]

Actually it's the opposite!

[Edgar Velazquez 2K]

It's actually the opposite. Work done ON the system is positive. Work done BY the system is negative.

[Eric Sun 2G]

When work is done on the system, the work is positive since work is being put into the system. However, when the system does work, the work is negative since work is leaving the system.