Reversible vs Irreversible
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Reversible vs Irreversible
Is it possible to show an infinitesimal change of the gas expansion experimentally (like has anyone found a video of an experiment that shows a reversible gas expansion)? Or is the concept of reversibility theoretical?
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Re: Reversible vs Irreversible
In the case of a reversible expansion, the system does the maximum possible amount of work. All heat is converted into work, which models a perfect engine, something that doesn't exist. A reversible expansion is 100% efficient and would not be found in real life, to the best of my knowledge.
I suppose someone could try to simulate a reversible expansion, but they would have to slowly expand a gas over an infinitely small number of incremental pressure changes, which would take an infinitely large amount of time to do. At the end of the day I think you could get (sort-of) close to a reversible expansion in a lab simulation, but you'd never quite get there.
I suppose someone could try to simulate a reversible expansion, but they would have to slowly expand a gas over an infinitely small number of incremental pressure changes, which would take an infinitely large amount of time to do. At the end of the day I think you could get (sort-of) close to a reversible expansion in a lab simulation, but you'd never quite get there.
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Re: Reversible vs Irreversible
Right, reversible expansion focuses more on the matter that all heat is used toward work. As far as I've seen, there hasn't been any experiments looking into the matter.
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