Note that the process path indicates a series of equilibrium states through which the system passes during a process and has significance for quasiequilibrium processes only. For nonquasi-equilibrium processes, we are not able to characterize the entire system by a single state, and thus we cannot speak of a process path for a system as a whole. A nonquasi-equilibrium process is denoted by a dashed line between the initial and final states instead of a solid line.