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An irreversible isothermic expansion?

Mr Skeptic
in Classical Physics

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Is there such a thing as an isothermic irreversible expansion of a gas against a constant external pressure? Could some one give me a physical example of one?

Is there such a thing as an isothermic irreversible expansion of a gas against a constant external pressure? Could some one give me a physical example of one?

 

It can be done, at least approximately, slowly and carefully, at least if you accept a change of state as expansion.

 

That it's "irreversible" is a given for any heat transfer.

 

What are you trying to accomplish?

Edited by J.C.MacSwell

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No, I mean theoretically irreversible, as in thermodynamics theory. It would only be irreversible if there was a change in temperature as well as heat transfer, I would think. Anyhow, I got a homework problem to calculate some things about such a system, but I don't think that such a system can exist.

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