Sign Convention For Work
The motivation for the specific sign conventions of thermodynamics comes from early development of heat engines. When designing a heat engine, the goal is to have the system produce and deliver work output. The source of energy in a heat engine, is a heat input.
If the volume compresses (delta V = final volume - initial volume < 0), then W < 0. That is, during isobaric compression the gas does negative work, or the environment does positive work. Restated, the environment does positive work on the gas.
If the volume expands (delta V = final volume - initial volume > 0), then W > 0. That is, during isobaric expansion the gas does positive work, or equivalently, the environment does negative work. Restated, the gas does positive work on the environment.
If heat is added to the system, then Q > 0. That is, during isobaric expansion/heating, positive heat is added to the gas, or equivalently, the environment receives negative heat. Restated, the gas receives positive heat from the environment.
If the system rejects heat, then Q < 0. That is, during isobaric compression/cooling, negative heat is added to the gas, or equivalently, the environment receives positive heat. Restated, the environment receives positive heat from the gas.
Read more about this topic: Isobaric Process
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“No convention gets to be a convention at all except by grace of a lot of clever and powerful people first inventing it, and then imposing it on others. You can be pretty sure, if you are strictly conventional, that you are following genius—a long way off. And unless you are a genius yourself, that is a good thing to do.”
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