ABSTRACT
This chapter devotes to developing qualitatively and quantitatively the concepts of work, energy, and heat. A cycle consists of a series of thermodynamic processes during which the working fluid can be made to undergo changes involving energy transitions and is subsequently returned to its original state. An interesting application of the concept of potential energy storage is the pumped storage in a hydroelectric power plant. Heat is defined as the energy in transition across the boundaries of a system due to a temperature difference between the system and its surroundings. Just as it is possible to distinguish the various forms of energy, such as work and heat, in a mechanical system, it is equally possible to distinguish the various forms of energy associated with electrical, chemical, and other systems. A feature of importance of potential energy is that a system can be said to possess it only with respect to an arbitrary initial or datum plane.
