Carnot cycle, heat and monatomic ideal gas

[frznfire219]

Hi, I would appreciate any help with this:

A monatomic ideal gas is used as the working substance for
the Carnot cycle. Processes A => B and C => D
are isothermal, while processes B => C and D => A are adiabatic.
During process A => B, there are 400 J of work done by the gas on
the surroundings. How much heat is expelled by the gas during process C => D?

So I'm completely stuck, all I know is that it's less than 400 J, obviously.
There's a picture of the corresponding PV graph actually at http://www.compadre.org/psrc/evals/Physics_Bowl_2003.pdf (page 12).

Thanks for any help!

 

[frznfire219]

anyone?

 

[Moose352]

I'm not sure about this explanation, but whatever. You know that the carnot cycle runs at perfect efficiency ie. 1-(Ql/Qh) and you know that efficiency of the carnot cycle is also 1-(Tl/Th). I get 100 J.

 

[frznfire219]

Thanks! I actually figured it out later with the adiabatic equation (PV^gamma is constant) but your way is much more elegant.