A process undergone by a system is depicted in the figure. During this process, the work done by the system

Step-by-step solution

The work done by a system during a thermodynamic process is given by the integral W = p , dV . Geometrically, the work done is represented by the area under the p-V curve projected onto the volume ( V ) axis. In the given p-V diagram, the arrow on the curve indicates that the process proceeds from left to right. This means the volume of the system is continuously increasing throughout the process, so dV > 0 . Since the pressure p is always positive and the volume is continuously increasing ( dV > 0 ), the different