Question

An ideal gas (which is is a hypothetical gas that conforms to the laws governing gas behavior) confined to a container with a massless piston at the top. A massless wire is attached to the piston. When an external pressure of 2.00 atm is applied to the wire, the gas compresses from 4.90 to 2.45 L . When the external pressure is increased to 2.50 atm, the gas further compresses from 2.45 to 1.96 L . In a separate experiment with the same initial conditions, a pressure of 2.50 atm was applied to the ideal gas, decreasing its volume from 4.90 to 1.96 L in one step. If the final temperature was the same for both processes, what is the difference between q for the two-step process and q for the one-step process in joules? Express your answer with the appropriate units.

Answer 1