We have already defined work as a force acting through a distance. It turns out that there are other equivalent definitions of work that are also important in chemistry.

When a certain volume of a gas expands, it works against an external pressure to expand (Figure 7.2 “Volume versus Pressure”). That is, the gas must perform work. Assuming that the external pressure P_ext is constant, the amount of work done by the gas is given by the equation

w = −P_ext × ΔV

where ΔV is the change in volume of the gas. This term is always the final volume minus the initial volume,

ΔV = V_final − V_initial

and can be positive or negative, depending on whether V_final is larger (is expanding) or smaller (is contracting) than V_initial. The negative sign in the equation for work is important and implies that as volume expands (ΔV is positive), the gas in the system is losing energy as work. On the other hand, if the gas is contracting, ΔV is negative, and the two negative signs make the work positive, so energy is being added to the system.

Finally, let us consider units. Volume changes are usually expressed in units like liters, while pressures are usually expressed in atmospheres. When we use the equation to determine work, the unit for work comes out as liter·atmospheres, or L·atm. This is not a very common unit for work. However, there is a conversion factor between L·atm and the common unit of work, joules:

1 L·atm = 101.32 J

Using this conversion factor and the previous equation for work, we can calculate the work performed when a gas expands or contracts.

Heat is another aspect of energy. Heat is the transfer of energy from one body to another due to a difference in temperature. For example, when we touch something with our hands, we interpret that object as either hot or cold depending on how energy is transferred: If energy is transferred into your hands, the object feels hot. If energy is transferred from your hands to the object, your hands feel cold. Because heat is a measure of energy transfer, heat is also measured in joules.

For a given object, the amount of heat (q) involved is proportional to two things: the mass of the object (m) and the temperature change (ΔT) evoked by the energy transfer. We can write this mathematically as

q∝m × ΔT

where ∝ means “is proportional to.” To make a proportionality an equality, we include a proportionality constant. In this case, the proportionality constant is labelled c and is called the specific heat capacity, or, more succinctly, specific heat:

q = mcΔT

where the mass, specific heat, and change in temperature are multiplied together. Specific heat is a measure of how much energy is needed to change the temperature of a substance; the larger the specific heat, the more energy is needed to change the temperature. The units for specific heat are Jg⋅°C or Jg⋅K, depending on what the unit of ΔT is. You may note a departure from the insistence that temperature be expressed in Kelvin. That is because a change in temperature has the same value whether the temperatures are expressed in degrees Celsius or kelvins.

As with any equation, when you know all but one variable in the expression for q, you can determine the remaining variable by using algebra.

Table 7.1 “Specific Heats of Various Substances” lists the specific heats of some substances. Specific heat is a physical property of substances, so it is a characteristic of the substance. The general idea is that the lower the specific heat, the less energy is required to change the temperature of the substance by a certain amount.