Carnot engine and Carnot cycle
Laws of thermodynamics · Physics
Gas piston lab
Interactive 3DHeat the gas and watch molecules speed up — pressure obeys the gas laws live.
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K
200K600K
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Study notes
A Carnot engine operates between a hot reservoir at 600 K and a cold reservoir at 300 K. (a) Find its efficiency. (b) If it absorbs 2000 J per cycle, find the work output and heat rejected. (c) What cold-reservoir temperature would raise the efficiency to 60%? Solution: (a) eta = 1 - T2/T1 = 1 - 300/600 = 0.50 = 50%. (b) W = eta x Q1 = 1000 J; Q2 = Q1 - W = 1000 J rejected. (c) 0.60 = 1 - T2/600 gives T2 = 240 K.