Physic thermal

1. Diesel engines give more miles per gallon than gasoline engines, but some of this is due to the
higher energy content of diesel fuel. At highway speeds, it takes 0.20 MJ to move an
aerodynamic car 1.0 km. At highway speeds, with a gasoline engine, a car gets 16 km per liter
of fuel; with a diesel engine under the hood, the car gets 19 km per liter of fuel. One liter of diesel
contains 36 MJ; 1 liter of gasoline contains only 32 MJ.
What is the efficiency of the diesel engine?
E=11%
What is the efficiency of the gasoline engine?
E=10%
2. For how long would a 68 kg person have to swim at a fast crawl to use all the energy available in
a typical fast food meal of burger, fries, and a drink? Assume that methabolic power of
a 68 kg individual swimming at a fast crawl is 800 WW and that fast food meal energy content
is 5660 kJ.
T=2h
3. Helium has the lowest boiling point of any substance, at 4.2 K.
What is this temperature in ∘C∘C?
T - ∘C
= 269

What is this temperature in ∘F∘F?

T=-452∘F

4. 20 J of heat are removed from a gas sample while it is being compressed by a piston that
does 30 J of work.
What is the change in the thermal energy of the gas?

ΔEth 10 J
=

5. How much heat energy is transferred to or from the system as heat? Enter positive value if the
energy is transferred to the system and negative if the energy is transferred from the system.
Q  -600 J
=

6. A California geothermal power plant generates 4.3 MW by extracting 24 MW of heat from an

What is the theoretical efficiency?

emax  24 %
=
 7. Each second, a nuclear power plant generates 2000 MJMJ of heat energy from nuclear
reactions in the reactor's core. This energy is used to boil water and produce high-pressure steam
at 300∘C∘C. The steam spins a turbine, which produces 700 MWMW of electric power, then the
steam is condensed and the water is cooled to 30∘C∘C before starting the cycle again.

What is the maximum possible thermal efficiency of the power plant?

emaxthermal =47%

What is the plant's actual efficiency?

eact 35 %
=

8. A NATO base in northern Norway is warmed with a heat pump that uses 7.0 °C ocean water
as the cold reservoir. Heat extracted from the ocean water warms fluid to 80°C; this warmed
fluid is used to heat the building. When the system is working at full capacity, 2,000 kW of
heat is delivered to the building at the cost of 600 kW of electric energy. a. What is the actual
coefficient of performance of the system? b. What is the theoretical maximum coefficient of
performance of the system?
What is the actual coefficient of performance of the system?
3.33

What is the theoretical maximum coefficient of performance of the system?

4.8

9. The inside of your refrigerator is approximately 2 ∘C∘C. Heat from the inside of your refrigerator
is deposited into the air in your kitchen, which has a temperature of approximately 22 ∘C∘C.
At these operating temperatures, what is the maximum possible coefficient of performance of
your refrigerator?

COPmax  14
=

10. As part of your job at the patent office, you are asked to evaluate the six designs shown in the
figure for innovative new heat engines. (Figure 1)

HW2
1. For a normal car riding on tires with relatively flexible sidewalls, the weight of the car is held
up, in large measure, by the pressure of the air in the tires. If you look at one of your car's
tires, you'll note that the tire is flattened slightly to make a rectangle where it touches the
ground. The area of the resulting "contact patch" depends on the pressure in the tires. To a
good approximation, the upward normal force of the ground (which we can assume is equal
to 1/4 of the car's weight) on this patch of the tire is equal to the downward pressure force on
the patch.
Suppose you inflate your 2,000 kg car’s tires to the recommended pressure, as
measured by a gauge. The resulting contact patch is 18 cm wide and 12 cm long. What
did the gauge read?
Pg 2.3×105 Pa
=

The area of the contact patch increases.

2. The lowest pressure ever obtained in a laboratory setting is 4.0×10−11 Pa.

3. 0.0055 mol of gas follows the hyperbolic  trajectory shown in

4.A 1.8 cm3 air bubble is released from the sandy bottom of a warm, shallow sea, where the gauge
pressure is 1.9 atm . The bubble rises slowly enough that the air inside remains at the same constant
temperature as the water.
a. What is the volume of the bubble as it reaches the surface?
V  5.2 cm3
=

b. As the bubble rises, is heat energy transferred from the water to the bubble or from the bubble to
the water? From water to bubble or bubble to water?
from the water to the bubble

5. On a cool morning, when the temperature is 11 ∘C, you measure the pressure in your car tires to
be 20 psi . After driving 30 mi on the freeway, the temperature of your tires is 54 ∘C.

For the steps and strategies involved in solving a similar problem, you may view a Video Tutor Solution.
What pressure will your tire gauge now show? Neglect the change of tires volume.
pgauge =25 psi

6.Older railroad tracks in the U.S. are made of 12-m-long pieces of steel. When the tracks are laid, gaps
are left between the sections to prevent buckling when the steel thermally expands.
If a track is laid at 16 ∘C, how large should the gaps be if the track is not to buckle when the temperature
is as high as 50 ∘C?
d =4.9 mm
7.When air is inhaled, it quickly becomes saturated with water vapor as it passes through the moist upper
airways. When breathing dry air, about 25 mg of water are exhaled with each breath. At 12 breaths per
minute, what is the rate of energy loss due to evaporation? At body temperature, the heat of vaporization
of water is Lv=24×105 J/kg
Express your answer in watts.
P =12W
Express your answer in Calories per day.
P=250 Calories per day

8. It is important for the body to have mechanisms to effectively cool itself; if not, moderate
exercise could easily increase body temperatures to dangerous levels. Suppose a 70 kg man runs
on a treadmill for 33 min , using a metabolic power of 1000 W. Assume that all of this power
goes to thermal energy in the body.
If he couldn't perspire or otherwise cool his body, by how much would his body temperature rise
during this exercise?
ΔT =8.3∘C

9. The Bodø NATO base in northern Norway uses a heat pump to extract heat from ocean water.
7.0∘C ocean water is continuously drawn into the system, heat is extracted, and the water is
returned to the ocean at 3.0∘C. When the system is working at full capacity, 2000 kW of heat is
delivered to the building at the cost of 600 kW of electric energy.
How much energy is removed from the water (the cold reservoir) each second?
ΔE)1s = 1400 kJ
What is the mass of water that moves through the system each second?
(M)1s = 84 kg