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Published in:
2015 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
2. Thermodynamics
Author : Isamu Kusaka
Published in: Statistical Mechanics for Engineers
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
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Abstract
We know from experience that a macroscopic system behaves in a relatively simple manner. For example, when liquid water is heated under atmospheric pressure, it will boil at 100 °C. If the vapor so produced is cooled at the same pressure, it will condense at 100 °C. These statements hold true regardless of the initial conditions from which the body of water under consideration has evolved. This situation is in stark contrast to that in classical mechanics, in which initial conditions play a far more prominent role. In fact, our experience tells us that results of measurements we make of a macroscopic body are quite insensitive to the detailed microscopic state of the body. Thermodynamics is built on this empirical observation and systematically elucidates interconnections among these insensitive observations. In this chapter, we will review the framework of thermodynamics before attempting to interpret it from the classical mechanical point of view in Chaps. 3 and 4.