Home▸Physics & Mechanics▸Adiabatic Processes: Compressing Gas Without Adding Heat

🌡️ Adiabatic Processes: Compressing Gas Without Adding Heat

Explore adiabatic compression and expansion, the pressure-volume relation that governs them, and why diesel engines and rising air parcels heat or cool without any heat ever entering or leaving the gas.

Physics & Mechanics3DModerate60 FPS

This simulation demonstrates how adiabatic compression and expansion drive pressure and temperature changes in a gas without any heat crossing the system boundary, following the pressure-volume-gamma relation.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

🎮 How to Use

Drag the piston to compress or expand the gas and watch pressure, volume, and temperature update in real time, then compare the resulting curve to an isothermal process at the same starting conditions.

💡 Did You Know?

A fire piston, an ancient tool used long before matches, ignites tinder using nothing but the intense heat generated by a single rapid adiabatic compression of air.

⚙ Under the hood

thermodynamicsadiabaticgas lawsphysicsmeteorologydiesel engineheat transferentropy

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install