Piston Example

[Alison Trinh 1E]

Can someone summarize the piston example that was discussed in lecture?

[Tanmay Singhal 1H]

i dont know if ur talking about this one. but basically it explained that increasing pressure by adding an inert gas does not change which side the reaction shifts to

[zfinn]

my impression of the example was that the displacement of the piston (moving out) can be used to calculate the change in energy of the system; if you calculate the work function of the piston movement then the energy would've decreased by an amount equal to the energy lost as work done by the system.

[005206171]

In expansion work, the work done to the surroundings is the energy lost to push against the external pressure. This is one way you can change the energy of the system.