In a thermodynamic study, a scientist focuses on the properties of a solution in an apparatus as illustrated. A solution is continuously flowing into the apparatus at the top and out at the bottom, such that the amount of solution in the apparatus is constant with time. (b) If the inlet and outlet were closed, what type of system would it be

Question

In a thermodynamic study, a scientist focuses on the properties of a solution in an apparatus as illustrated. A solution is continuously flowing into the apparatus at the top and out at the bottom, such that the amount of solution in the apparatus is constant with time. (b) If the inlet and outlet were closed, what type of system would it be

Diagram of an apparatus with two inlet pipes and one outlet pipe for a thermodynamic study.

Accepted Answer

Welcome back everyone. We need to consider the mixing tank depicted below. We're told that the flow of the two inlets is balanced such that the solution inside the tank and the solution that flows through the outlet has a constant composition. So we can say that we have matter flowing into and out of the system and then moving on to the prompt. It says that the temperature is also maintained through the use of a heating mechanism. So if the inlet and outlet were now blocked, we need to figure out what type of system will the tank be now before we imagine our inlet and outlet being blocked. We want to recognize that because they mentioned that heat is maintained rather temperature is maintained in the system. So we can say that therefore heat is going to be heat flows in and out of system. And so because we know that we have matter which is our solution flowing in and out of our system as well as heat flowing in and out of our system, we want to recall that this can be described as energy as well. So heat can also be described as energy. And we should recall that when we have a flow of matter as well as energy flowing into and out of a system, we can describe this as an open system. But according to the prompt, now we want to go ahead and block the inlet and outlet. So we're going to block our inlet and we're going to block the outlet. And so once it's blocked, we would say that we have no constant flow of matter which is being which is our solution, but we can say, but this only affects the matter. And so we still have that heat being maintained by the system which is being introduced to everything outside of our system being our surroundings. So but key is still introduced by system two surroundings. And so we would say. Therefore, we have what we would recall as a closed system because we still have a flow of energy being the heat that our system is transferring to the surroundings. And so for our final answer, we would say that we have a closed system so that is describing our tank depicted once the inlet and outlets blocked, and that is our final answer highlighted in yellow. So I hope that everything that I explained was clear. If you have any questions, please leave them down below and I will see everyone in the next practice video.

Verified Solution

Key Concepts

Thermodynamic Systems

Closed System

Steady State