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Ch.5 - Thermochemistry

Chapter 5, Problem 5a

The diagram shows four states of a system, each with different internal energy, E. (a) Which of the states of the system has the greatest internal energy?

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Hey everyone welcome back in this example. We need to consider the diagram which is illustrating different states of a system and we need to identify the system that has the largest internal energy. So we should recall first that internal energy is represented either as sorry as either as delta you here as given in the illustration or it can be represented as delta U. Where delta means the change of our internal energy in both cases. And we should recall that internal energy is the total energy in a system and it can be calculated by taking the sum of our potential energy and kinetic energy. So we'll actually express that as potential energy Plus kinetic energy would equal our internal energy. So now that we've outlined these facts below, we want to go ahead and recall that the system with the largest internal energy should have the largest arrow given in the diagram. And what we can instantly recognize is that at ST B we have a internal energy value which moves into state C. And this is going to be the largest arrow given in our diagram. So we can say that based on this depiction here, our internal energy for system two from State B two State C would be our highest internal energy because it has the largest change otherwise depicted as the tallest arrow represented in our illustration and because the final state ends at state C. For changing an internal energy for system to here, we can say that therefore State C. Has the largest internal energy. And so this statement here would be our final answer to complete this example. So what's highlighted in yellow in our solution is our final answer. If you have any questions, please leave them down below, and I will see everyone in the next practice video.