Further Concepts of Thermodynamics

In chapter 3 the development of the second law of thermodynamics and of the entropy as a function of state led to the derivation of equations such as 3.24 which relate measurable parameters of any system. Thermodynamics is not a complete self-contained description of the thermal properties however since to obtain the individual quantities, such as the coefficient of thermal expansion of the system, a certain amount of information has to be provided either from experiment or else from microscopic theory (statistical mechanics, see chapter 7). The minimum amount of information which is required before all the parameters of a system can be calculated using the laws of thermodynamics is therefore of some importance.