Athermodynamic system consists of an ideal gas at an initial volume of 2.90 l and a pressure of 7.1 × 104 pa. an external force performs 170 j of work as it compresses the gas at constant pressure. what is the new volume of the gas? 5.3l 0.51l

The initial volume of the gas is (keeping in mind that ):


The work done by the external force on the gas is

where p is the pressure and  the final volume. Re-arranging this equation, we can find the final volume Vf:

and this value makes sense, because it is less than the initial volume of the gas, in fact the problem says that the external force compresses the gas.