section_path: Thermodynamics/First law of thermodynamics
section_name: First law of thermodynamics
paragraph_text: First law of thermodynamics
  
  The first law of thermodynamics asserts that the total energy of a system and its surroundings (but not necessarily thermodynamic free energy) is always conserved and that heat flow is a form of energy transfer. For homogeneous systems, with a well-defined temperature and pressure, a commonly used corollary of the first law is that, for a system subject only to pressure forces and heat transfer (e.g., a cylinder-full of gas) without chemical changes, the differential change in the internal energy of the system (with a gain in energy signified by a positive quantity) is given as
  
  where the first term on the right is the heat transferred into the system, expressed in terms of temperature T and entropy S (in which entropy increases and its change d S is positive when heat is added to the system), and the last term on the right hand side is identified as work done on the system, where pressure is P and volume V (the negative sign results since compression of the system requires work to be done on it and so the volume change, d V, is negative when work is done on the system).
  
  This equation is highly specific, ignoring all chemical, electrical, nuclear, and gravitational forces, effects such as advection of any form of energy other than heat and PV -work. The general formulation of the first law (i.e., conservation of energy) is valid even in situations in which the system is not homogeneous. For these cases the change in internal energy of a closed system is expressed in a general form by
  
  where δ Q {\displaystyle \delta Q} is the heat supplied to the system and δ W {\displaystyle \delta W} is the work applied to the system.