20 QUESTIONS · 5 TOPICS · GAS PISTON LAB · ABOUT 15 MINUTES

You can't win, you can't break even, and you can't leave the game.

That's the old joke version of the laws of thermodynamics: energy is conserved, some is always wasted as heat, and absolute zero can never be reached. Twenty questions, each explained, then squeeze a gas and watch its pressure–volume diagram. No sign-up, nothing saved.

Start the test
Surface of the Sun≈ 5,800 K
Water boils373 K · 100 °C
Water freezes273 K · 0 °C
Space background2.7 K
Absolute zero0 K · −273 °C
QUESTION 1 / 20 · TEMPERATURE & HEATEasy

What is 0 °C in kelvin?

GAS PISTON LAB · PV = nRT

Squeeze, heat or expand a gas

Pressure, volume and temperature are locked together by the ideal gas law. Hold one constant and change another, then watch the third respond, on the piston and on the pressure–volume diagram engineers use to design engines.

50 kPapressure
5.0 Lvolume
300 Ktemperature · fixed
Volume (litres) →Pressure (kPa) →
Boyle's law: P × V stays constantSqueeze the gas and the same particles hit a smaller area more often, so pressure rises. The temperature is held fixed, so the gas releases heat as you compress it.Work done by the gas: +0 J
0.1 mol of an ideal gas. Dashed lines are isotherms at 200, 400 and 600 K. The shaded area under the path is the work done by (or on) the gas since the white starting point.

What this thermodynamics test covers, in short

Twenty multiple-choice questions at first-year university level, four on each of five topics: temperature and heat, the laws of thermodynamics, gases, heat transfer, and engines and entropy.

Temperatures in gas-law questions must be in kelvin (K = °C + 273). The test is our own and not normed.

By What's Your IQ · Reviewed 5 Oct 2026
Format
20 multiple-choice questions
Level
First-year university
Bonus
Ideal-gas piston with live PV diagram
Key idea
Entropy of an isolated system never decreases

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Juggling three variables at once? That's working memory.

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