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Consider the differential $$mathrm dp=frac RV,mathrm dT+left(frac2aV^2-fracRTV^2right),mathrm dV$$ (where $a$ is a constant value)

(a) Determine whether the above differential, i.e. $mathrm dp$, is exact or not. Show all your steps and evaluation of the appropriate partial differentials!

I have no idea on how to even start this. As far as I can tell the differential is exact, but I don't know how to prove or show it. I'm really struggling to show the steps involved. I would appreciate any advice and thank you very much in advance.

Your function $p$ is a function of the independent variables $V$ and $T$ i.e., $p(V,T)$. The other variables, $a$, and $R$ are constants.

Let me rewrite the differential as

$$mathrmdp = A(V)mathrmdT + B(T,V),mathrmdV$$

where

$$A(V) = fracRV$$

and

$$ B(T,V) = left( frac2aV^3 - fracRTV^2 right) $$

A differential is exact if

$$left( fracpartial Apartial V right)_T = left( fracpartial Bpartial T right)_V $$

Note that subscripts denote that the variable is being held constant during the partial differentiation. The problem already told us what our $A$ and $B$ terms are, and I wrote them out explicitly above. Now, we just need to take the appropriate partial differentials and compare. If they are equal, then $mathrmdp$ is exact!

Writing out the formulas took awhile, it seems a shame to stop now... A little bit of differentiating, remembering to hold the appropriate variables constant during differentiation leads to

$$left( fracpartial Apartial V right)_T = -fracRV^2$$

$$left( fracpartial Bpartial T right)_V = -fracRV^2$$

If the two partial derivatives are the same, the differential is exact. I will let you be the judge.

For a given function, $F(x,y,z,...)$, it's differential $textdF$ is given by:
$$
textdF = left(fracpartial Fpartial xright)_y,z text d x +left(fracpartial Fpartial yright)_x,z text d y + left(fracpartial Fpartial zright)_x,y text d z +; ...
$$

To say that a differential is an exact differential is to say that is if the differential of a function and hence is of the form given about.

For the case given:

$$
mathrm dp(T,V)=frac RV,mathrm dT+left(frac2aV^2-fracRTV^2right),mathrm dV
$$

If $mathrm dp$ is an exact differential, that would mean that:

$$
left(fracpartial ppartial Tright)_V = frac RV textand left(fracpartial ppartial Vright)_T = left(frac2aV^2-fracRTV^2right)
$$

There are two equivalent way to determine whether this is true, you can integrate the partial derivatives of $p$ to recover a form for $p$, or you can differentiate each term once more to so that both give identical values for the mixed second derivative.

Integration

Taking indefinite integrals of the suspected derivatives:

$$int frac RV mathrm d T = fracRTV + g(V) \
int left(frac2aV^2-fracRTV^2right) mathrm d V = frac-2a+RTV + h(T) \
implies p(T,V) = fracRT-2aV + c
$$

Differentiation

It is typically easier to compare the suspected derivative by differentiation. If $p$ is a true function of $T$ and $V$, by the symmetry of mixed derivatives:

$$
fracpartial partial T _V left(fracpartial p partial V right)_T = fracpartial partial V _T left( fracpartial p partial T right)_V
$$

Assuming:
$$ left(fracpartial ppartial Tright)_V = frac RV \
implies fracpartial partial V _T left( fracpartial p partial T right)_V = -fracRV^2
$$

Assuming

$$ left(fracpartial ppartial Vright)_T = left(frac2aV^2-fracRTV^2right) \
implies fracpartial partial T _V left( fracpartial p partial V right)_T = -fracRV^2
$$

Both terms of the differential $mathrm dp$ imply the same mixed second derivative, hence $mathrm dp$ is an exact differential.