- #1
Dr. 104
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Homework Statement
Find the chemical potential for an ideal gas as a function of temperature and pressure. Use the "Gibbs-Duhen relation".
Homework Equations
[tex]\mu=\frac{\partial U}{\partial N}[/tex]
[tex]dU=TdS-pdV+\sum\limits_{i}\mu_{i}dN_{i}[/tex]
[tex]U=Q+W[/tex]
Gibbs-Duhen relation: [tex]0=SdT-Vdp+\sum\limits_{i}N_{i}d\mu_{i}[/tex]
Ideal gas law: [tex]pV=Nk_{b}T[/tex]
The Attempt at a Solution
Well first I just tried putting the second equation (above) into the first one, but that just resulted in [itex]\mu[/itex] again, so that was a dead end.
I also tried plugging in everything I could from the ideal gas equation into the second equation (above) and the Gibbs-Duhen equation, because the problem asks for an ideal gas, hoping something would pop out after that, but I had no luck.
Thermodynamics has always been my weakest subject in physics.
I have several problems like this to do, so I'm not actually looking for a solution for this particular problem, I'm looking for general information on how to solve this type of problem that will help me on all of them.
I have no trouble like this with other areas of physics, but there's something about thermodynamics that my mind just doesn't get.. Maybe I just haven't learned it properly but I don't feel like there's any consistent set of fundamental equations, or underlying theory that I can cling to when I'm lost.