Concept
Thermodynamics
Overview
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 behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of thermodynamics, which convey a quantitative description using measurable macroscopic physical quantities but may be explained in terms of microscopic constituents by statistical mechanics. Thermodynamics applies to various topics in science and engineering, especially physical chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering, as well as other complex fields such as meteorology.
Historically, thermodynamics developed out of a desire to increase the efficiency of early steam engines, particularly through the work of French physicist Sadi Carnot (1824). Scots-Irish physicist Lord Kelvin was the first to formulate a concise definition of thermodynamics in 1854 which stated, "Thermo-dynamics is the subject of the relation of heat to forces acting between contiguous parts of bodies, and the relation of heat to electrical agency." German physicist and mathematician Rudolf Clausius restated Carnot's principle known as the Carnot cycle and gave the theory of heat a more accurate 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 named 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 and has provided the bulk of expansion and knowledge of the field. Other formulations of thermodynamics emerged. 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.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
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It is then assumed that _p_ of our parameters vary independently, so that we only have _n_ - _p_ relations, generally linear, between our _n_ parameters and their derivatives. To simplify the enunciation, suppose that the sum of the work of the external forces is null, as well as that of the quantities of heat given off to the outside. Then the signification of our principle will be: _There is a combination of these…
Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science
The chapter “ENERGY AND THERMODYNAMICS” is titled for Thermodynamics; states what Thermodynamics is.
But now this is not true, as will be evident to any one who will consider this question in the most approved method. As, in an inquiry into every other subject, it is necessary to separate the different parts of which it is compounded, till we arrive at their first elements, which are the most minute parts thereof; so by the same…
Aristotle, Politics
States what Thermodynamics is; the author is tied to Thermodynamics in the knowledge graph.
Some of them appear to have no sensation; in others it is very dull. The body of some of them is naturally fleshy, as of those which are called tethya; and the acalephe and the sponge entirely resemble plants; the progress is always gradual by which one appears to have more life and motion than another. 4. In the vital actions also we may observe the same manner. For vegetables which are produced from seed appear to…
Aristotle, Aristotle's History of Animals In Ten Books
States what Thermodynamics is; the author is tied to Thermodynamics in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Thermodynamics
Related ideas
- Second law of thermodynamics
- James Watt
- English people
- Mechanics
- Heat
- Matter
- Meteorology
- Physics
- Quark
- Quantum mechanics
- Statistics
- Science
- Statistical mechanics
- James Clerk Maxwell
- Aristotle
- Vacuum
- Lord Kelvin
- University of Glasgow
- Pierre Duhem
- Robert Boyle
- Chemistry
- Ludwig Boltzmann
- Conservation of energy
- Economics
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Deductive-nomological model.