"Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation."
The study of heat and energy transfer and how it affects the properties and behavior of matter.
Thermodynamic Systems: The study of components and their relationships with their environment, including the classification of systems as open or closed, and the different types of interactions that may occur.
State Functions: Properties of systems that are dependent solely upon their current state, as opposed to their past or future state, and are therefore independent of the path by which they arrived at that state.
First Law of Thermodynamics: The principle that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another, and that the total energy of a system must remain constant over time.
Heat and Work: Different forms of energy transfer that can occur during the conversion of one form of energy to another, including conduction, convection, and radiation.
Enthalpy: A measure of the total energy of a system, including both internal energy and the energy required to create the system's volume and pressure.
Entropy: A measure of the degree of randomness or disorder within a system, and the tendency of systems to move towards greater disorder over time.
Second Law of Thermodynamics: The principle that the total entropy of a system and its surroundings must always increase over time, and the consequent limits that this imposes on the ability of systems to perform useful work.
Gibbs Free Energy: A measure of the energy available to perform useful work within a system, and the conditions under which it may be maximized or minimized.
Phase Changes: The transformations that take place within a system as a result of changes in temperature, pressure, or other external factors, including solidification, melting, evaporation, and condensation.
Chemical Equilibria: The balance between reactants and products in a chemical reaction, and the factors that determine the direction and extent of this equilibrium.
Classical Thermodynamics: Classical thermodynamics deals with the macroscopic behavior of matter under different conditions. It is concerned with the relationships between various macroscopic properties such as temperature, pressure, volume, and energy. Classical thermodynamics can explain many macroscopic phenomena such as heat transfer, work, and energy.
Statistical Thermodynamics: Statistical thermodynamics is concerned with the microscopic behavior of matter. It deals with the distribution of molecules and their interactions in a system. Statistical thermodynamics can explain the thermal properties of matter such as specific heat, thermal conductivity, and thermal expansion.
Quantum Thermodynamics: Quantum thermodynamics is a relatively new field of study that combines classical and quantum mechanics with thermodynamics. It is concerned with the behavior of small-scale systems such as atoms and molecules. Quantum thermodynamics can explain the thermal properties of small-scale systems such as energy levels, heat capacity, and entropy.
"The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of thermodynamics which convey a quantitative description using measurable macroscopic physical quantities."
"The behavior of these quantities may be explained in terms of microscopic constituents by statistical mechanics."
"Thermodynamics applies to a wide variety of topics in science and engineering, especially physical chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering, but also in other complex fields such as meteorology."
"Historically, thermodynamics developed out of a desire to increase the efficiency of early steam engines."
"French physicist Sadi Carnot (1824) who believed that engine efficiency was the key that could help France win the Napoleonic Wars."
"Scots-Irish physicist Lord Kelvin was the first to formulate a concise definition of thermodynamics in 1854."
"German physicist and mathematician Rudolf Clausius restated Carnot's principle known as the Carnot cycle and gave the theory of heat a truer and sounder basis."
"His most important paper, 'On the Moving Force of Heat,' published in 1850, first stated the second law of thermodynamics."
"In 1865 he introduced the concept of entropy."
"In 1870 he introduced the virial theorem, which applied to heat."
"The initial application of thermodynamics to mechanical heat engines was quickly extended to the study of chemical compounds and chemical reactions."
"Chemical thermodynamics studies the nature of the role of entropy in the process of chemical reactions."
"Statistical thermodynamics, or statistical mechanics, concerns itself with statistical predictions of the collective motion of particles from their microscopic behavior."
"In 1909, Constantin Carathéodory presented a purely mathematical approach in an axiomatic formulation, a description often referred to as geometrical thermodynamics."