Chapter 14 Perfect gas processes
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14.1 Reversibility and work
14.1.1 Reversibility
Before we consider any particular fluid processes you will need to understand the concept of reversibility.
You may remember from your study of oscillatory motion in section 11.3, that when a spring–mass system was freely oscillating, it was subject to a natural damping action caused by friction and air resistance, so that for each cycle the amplitude gradually reduced; thus each cycle was not repeatable and the motion eventually died away. We say that this motion is not repeatable, or is irreversible. Now, in a similar manner consider a pendulum undergoing oscillatory ...
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