Question

A gas kept in a container of finite conductivity is suddenly compressed. The process
(a) must be very nearly adiabatic
(b) must be very nearly isothermal
(c) may be very nearly adiabatic
(d) may be very nearly isothermal

Answer 1

(c) may be very nearly adiabatic
(d) may be very nearly isothermal
Due to sudden compression, the gas did not get sufficient time for heat exchange. So, no heat exchange occurred. Therefore, the process may be adiabatic. For any process to be isothermal, its temperature should remain constant, i.e. pressure and volume should change simultaneously while their product (temperature) should be constant.