The lost work compares the work done in an arbitary process

The lost work compares the work done in an arbitary process with that in its reversible counterpart with the common starting and ending points. Comment on the sign of the lost work from the perspective of the second law of thermodynamics and support your answer with an example. Help I am quite new to thermodynamics please help to provide all the steps and explanation thank:)

Solution

In any process, the work done on the system is taken as negative and work done by the system is taken as positive.

AS your saying lost work it will be work done by the system so it will be positive.

Now consider melting of ice. Here while ice melts work is done by the ice to melt as water. so work is done by the ice which will be taken as positive.

If the heat is taken by the system it will be positive and if heat given out by the system which is termed as heat lost is taken as negative.