Reversible vs Irreverisble

$\Delta S = \frac{q_{rev}}{T}$

Annie Lieu-1H
Posts: 68
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 7:04 am
Been upvoted: 1 time

Reversible vs Irreverisble

Hi,

I was wondering on the mid term/future exams, would the problem state if a certain process is reversible or irreversible? I understand that to be reversible you have to ; the temperature of system and surroundings have to be small change and constant but what does that mean realistically and how would that look in a problem (if it wasn't given of course)..

Lindsay Kester 2L
Posts: 29
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2017 3:00 am

Re: Reversible vs Irreverisble

For anything besides entropy (where it doesn't matter if something is reversible or irreversible), you should be told whether or not it's reversible or irreversible. If the problem just says volume changes from 2L to 5L, you assume it's irreversible. If it says something along the lines of "throughout infinitely many tiny steps, the volume changes from 2L to 5L", then you assume it's reversible.