Thermodynamics is the science of the flow of heat. It applies to macroscopic systems in equilibrium and how to go from one equilibrium state to another. It is entirely empirical and summed up into four laws and basic mathematics.
Zeroth law of thermodynamics: defines temperature
First law of thermodynamics: defines energy
Second law of Thermodynamics: defines entropy
Third Law of Thermodynamics: gives numerical value to entropy
These laws are UNIVERSALLY VALID and cannot be circumvented.
Definitions used in Thermodynamics:
Examples of systems:
whatever is left over is the surroundings. Between the system and the surroundings is the boundary.
Examples of boundaries:
Systems can be:
Describing Systems requires:
Two classes of Properties:
A system is in equilibrium if the properties that describe the system, such as
,
,
, etc. do not change in time or space. A gas in a container needs to be the same
,
,
to be in equilibrium.
References
This is a derivative work from [1] a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 work
[1] MIT OpenCourseWare, 5.60 Thermodynamics and Kinetics: Thermodynamics and Kinetics, Spring 2008
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