Energy, heat and work problem... thanks?

Question

One mole of an ideal gas is expanded at T = 300 K from a volume of 1.00 liter to a volume of 10.00 liters against a constant external pressure of 1.00 atm. How much work (in joules) is performed on the surroundings?

Answer 1

Probably your problem is how to convert the work unit from P*V type to joule. Let me tell you one easy way.
Do you remember that the gas constant R may be written in different forms?
0.08206 (atm*L/mol*K) = R = 8.314 (Joule/mol*K)
From this we get:
(atm*L) = 8.314/0.08206 J = 101.3 J
Thus the answer to current problem is:
(10.00-1.00)*1.00*101.3 = 912 (J)
Temperature is not needed to solve this problem.