Work (thermodynamics)

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Thermodynamic work is one of the principal kinds of process by which a thermodynamic system can interact with and transfer energy to its surroundings. This results in externally measurable macroscopic forces on the system's surroundings, which can cause mechanical work, for example to lift a weight, or cause changes in external electromagnetic quantities. Also, the surroundings can perform thermodynamic work on a thermodynamic system, which is measured by an opposite sign. For thermodynamic work, appropriately chosen externally measured quantities are exactly matched by values of or contributions to changes in macroscopic internal state variables of the system, which always occur in conjugate pairs, for example pressure and volume or magnetic flux density and magnetization. In the International System of Units (SI), work is measured in joules (symbol J). The rate at which work is performed is power, measured in joules per second, and denoted with the unit watt (W).