Consider a reversible heat engine operating between two reservoirs at temperatures and
.The engine absorbs
heat from the reservoir at temperature
and rejects
heat to the reservoir at temperature
. Show that the efficiency
of the heat engine can be expressed as:
The efficiency of a heat engine is defined as the ratio of useful work output (
to the heat input
From the first law of thermodynamics, we know that for any cyclic process:
For a reversible engine, as the internal energy returns to the same value at the end of a cycle. Therefore:
Solving for gives:
Substituting this back into the efficiency equation:
Now, we know that for a reversible heat engine, the efficiency can also be expressed in terms of temperatures:
Thus, we have shown that the efficiency of the reversible heat engine is given by .
Therefore, the correct option is (1).
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