1824
Work, i.e. "weight lifted through a height", was originally defined in 1824 by Sadi Carnot in his famous paper Reflections on the Motive Power of … See more

In thermodynamics, the quantity of work done by a closed system on its surroundings is defined by factors strictly confined to the interface of the surroundings with the system and to the surroundings of the system, for example, an extended … See more

Pressure–volume work (or PV or P-V work) occurs when the volume V of a system changes. PV work is often measured in units of litre-atmospheres where 1L·atm = 101.325J. However, the litre-atmosphere is not a recognized unit in the SI system of … See more

The amount of useful work which may be extracted from a thermodynamic system is determined by the second law of thermodynamics. Under many practical situations this can be … See more

Conservation of energy
A presupposed guiding principle of thermodynamics is the conservation of energy. The total energy of a system is the sum of its internal energy, of its potential energy as a whole system in an external force field, such as … See more

In the early history of thermodynamics, a positive amount of work done by the system on the surroundings leads to energy being lost … See more

There are several ways of doing mechanical work, each in some way related to a force acting through a distance. In basic … See more