What is the value of work when a piston of volume 0.2 l expands against an external pressure of 200 kpa to a volume of 3.4 l?

This question involves the concepts of work done by the piston and the pressure-volume-work equation.

The value of work done will be "640 J".

The pressure-volume-work equation is given as follows:

where,

W = Work done by the piston = ?

P = External pressure = 200 KPa = 200000 Pa

ΔV = Change in volume = 3.4 L - 0.2 L = 3.2 L = 0.0032 m³

Therefore,

W = 640 J

Learn more about work done by piston here:

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The attached picture shows pressure-volume-work equation.

Explanation:

To calculate the work, given a change in volume we use the following formula:

Where is work, is pressure, is the final volume, and is the initial volume.

In this case:

We need to convert liters to (to get joule units in the work ) Since

Thus, thw work is:

the value of work in the expansion is