Baseball physics curve?

Like all work functions, PV work is path-dependent. (The path in question is a curve in the Euclidean space specified by the fluid's pressure and volume, and infinitely many such curves are possible.) From a thermodynamic perspective, this fact implies that PV work is not a state function. This means that the differential dW is an inexact differential; to be more rigorous, it should be written đW (with a line through the d).