Specific internal energy

Internal energy
Common symbols	p
SI unit	J
In SI base units	m2*kg/s2
Derivations from other quantities	${\displaystyle U=\sum _{i}E_{i}\!}$

In thermodynamics, the internal energy of a system is the energy contained within the system, excluding the kinetic energy of motion of the system as a whole and the potential energy of the system as a whole due to external force fields. It keeps account of the gains and losses of energy of the system that are due to changes in its internal state.

The internal energy of a system can be changed by transfers of matter or heat or by doing work. When matter transfer is prevented by impermeable containing walls, the system is said to be closed. Then the first law of thermodynamics states that the increase in internal energy is equal to the total heat added plus the work done on the system by its surroundings. If the containing walls pass neither matter nor energy, the system is said to be isolated and its internal energy cannot change. The first law of thermodynamics may be regarded as establishing the existence of the internal energy.

The internal energy is one of the two cardinal state functions of the state variables of a thermodynamic system.

The internal energy of a given state of a system cannot be directly measured. It is determined through some convenient chain of thermodynamic operations and thermodynamic processes by which the given state can be prepared, starting with a reference state which is customarily assigned a reference value for its internal energy. Such a chain, or path, can be theoretically described by certain extensive state variables of the system, namely, its entropy, S, its volume, V, and its mole numbers, {N_j}. The internal energy, U(S,V,{N_j}), is a function of those. Sometimes, to that list are appended other extensive state variables, for example electric dipole moment. For practical considerations in thermodynamics and engineering it is rarely necessary or convenient to consider all energies belonging to the total intrinsic energy of a system, such as the energy given by the equivalence of mass. Customarily, thermodynamic descriptions include only items relevant to the processes under study. Thermodynamics is chiefly concerned only with changes in the internal energy, not with its absolute value.