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Simple (edit: Thermal) Physics Question
Given the level of discussion Boost's post received I'd thought I'd throw another interesting question out there. It should be most interesting if people attempted to answer the question immediately after reading before checking out everyone else's reply... but I doubt many will do that.
This is not meant to have tricky language, so feel free to ask questions if you are confused. This is a physics question, so assume everything is ideal and such...
An ideal gas of temperature T, volume V, and pressure P, is inside a piston which is surrounded by an insulating jacket, and placed vertically on a table, (such that the piston head could move vertically). The frictionless piston head of mass M is free to move, but initially is at rest at a height H above the table. Slowly, a large number of small masses (considerably smaller than M) are added to the piston head.
Describe what happens to the gas after the masses are added, specifically whether the temperature, volume, and pressure increase, decrease, remain the same, or if there is not enough information given to determine the answer.
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