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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
Teaching Tools Made With Excel Spreadsheets to Study the Isothermal Process in an Ideal Gas
Author(s)
Ionel Grigore
Gheorghe Dumitrescu
Daniela Stoica
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DOI:10.17265/2161-623X/2016.07.004
Affiliation(s)
High School Nichita Stanescu, Ploiesti, Romania
High School Toma N. Socolescu, Ploiesti, Romania
High School Ion Luca Caragiale, Ploiesti, Romania
ABSTRACT
This
paper demonstrates how Excel spreadsheets can be explored in order to analyze
the isothermal process in an ideal gas. It describes three tools made with
spreadsheets to facilitate students’ understanding of the model of the ideal
gas and the isothermal transformation. With the help of the first tool we can
draw a comparison between the theoretical model which describes the isothermal
process for an ideal gas and the experimental data in order to verify the
Boyle-Mariotte law. With the help of the second tool we can analyze the
isothermal process in an ideal gas by the graphic representation of the
isotherm curve in the pressure-volume coordinates. This tool can also
calculate, both analytically and numerically, the work exchanged by the gas
with the external environment. The numerical calculation of the work is based
on the geometrical interpretation of this measure in the pressure-volume
coordinates. The third tool provides the comparison between the isothermal process
and the adiabatic process in an ideal gas when both processes are characterized
by the same initial state. The classroom utilization of these three tools
develops students’ skills in Excel for data manipulation to calculate certain
thermodynamic measures and leads to the clarification of certain fundamentals
concepts of thermodynamics, such as the isothermal transformation and the work.
The numerical calculation of the work with the help of the facilities offered
by the spreadsheet contributes to students’ understanding of a key concept of
definite integral calculus.
KEYWORDS
spreadsheets, isothermal transformation, Boyle-Mariotte law, work in thermodynamics, educational physics
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