An introductory textbook presenting the key concepts and applications of thermodynamics, including numerous worked examples and exercises.

xi should hope for "first and foremost" from any historical investigation, including his own, was that "it may not be too tedious. " II That hope is generally realized in Mach's historical writings, most of which are as lively and interesting now as they were when they appeared. Mach did not follow any existing model of historical or philosophical or scientific exposition, but went at things his own way combining the various approaches as needed to reach the goals he set for himself. When he is at his best we get a sense of the Mach whom William James met on a visit to Prague, the Mach whose four hours of "unforgettable conversation" gave the forty year old, well traveled James the strongest "impression of pure intellectual genius" he had yet received, and whose "absolute simplicity of manner and winningness of smile" captivated him completely. 12 Consider, for example, the first few chapters of this book, Principles of the Theory of Heat, which Mach devotes to the notion of temperature, that most fundamental of all thermal concepts. He begins by trying to trace the path that leads from our sensations of hot and cold to a numerical temperature scale.

"Yet another cell and molecular biology book? At the very least, you would think that if I was going to write a textbook, I should write one in an area that really needs one instead of a subject that already has multiple excellent and definitive books. So, why write this book, then? First, it's a course that I have enjoyed teaching for many years, so I am very familiar with what a student really needs to take away from this class within the time constraints of a semester. Second, because it is a course that many students take, there is a greater opportunity to make an impact on more students' pocketbooks than if I were to start off writing a book for a highly specialized upper- level course. And finally, it was fun to research and write, and can be revised easily for inclusion as part of our next textbook, High School Biology."--Open Textbook Library.

This textbook is for a one semester introductory course in thermodynamics, primarily for use in a mechanical or aerospace engineering program, although it could also be used in an engineering science curriculum. The book contains a section on the geometry of curves and surfaces, in order to review those parts of calculus that are needed in thermodynamics for interpolation and in discussing thermodynamic equations of state of simple substances. It presents the First Law of Thermodynamics as an equation for the time rate of change of system energy, the same way that Newton’s Law of Motion, an equation for the time rate of change of system momentum, is presented in Dynamics. Moreover, this emphasis illustrates the importance of the equation to the study of heat transfer and fluid mechanics. New thermodynamic properties, such as internal energy and entropy, are introduced with a motivating discussion rather than by abstract postulation, and connection is made with kinetic theory. Thermodynamic properties of the vaporizable liquids needed for the solution of practical thermodynamic problems (e.g. water and various refrigerants) are presented in a unique tabular format that is both simple to understand and easy to use. All theoretical discussions throughout the book are accompanied by worked examples illustrating their use in practical devices. These examples of the solution of various kinds of thermodynamic problems are all structured in exactly the same way in order to make, as a result of the repetitions, the solution of new problems easier for students to follow, and ultimately, to produce themselves. Many additional problems are provided, half of them with answers, for students to do on their own.

The Principles of Biology sequence (BI 211, 212 and 213) introduces biology as a scientific discipline for students planning to major in biology and other science disciplines. Laboratories and classroom activities introduce techniques used to study biological processes and provide opportunities for students to develop their ability to conduct research.

Modern Thermodynamics: From Heat Engines to Dissipative Structures, Second Edition presents a comprehensive introduction to 20th century thermodynamics that can be applied to both equilibrium and non-equilibrium systems, unifying what was traditionally divided into ‘thermodynamics’ and ‘kinetics’ into one theory of irreversible processes. This comprehensive text, suitable for introductory as well as advanced courses on thermodynamics, has been widely used by chemists, physicists, engineers and geologists. Fully revised and expanded, this new edition includes the following updates and features: Includes a completely new chapter on Principles of Statistical Thermodynamics. Presents new material on solar and wind energy flows and energy flows of interest to engineering. Covers new material on self-organization in non-equilibrium systems and the thermodynamics of small systems. Highlights a wide range of applications relevant to students across physical sciences and engineering courses. Introduces students to computational methods using updated Mathematica codes. Includes problem sets to help the reader understand and apply the principles introduced throughout the text. Solutions to exercises and supplementary lecture material provided online at http://sites.google.com/site/modernthermodynamics/. Modern Thermodynamics: From Heat Engines to Dissipative Structures, Second Edition is an essential resource for undergraduate and graduate students taking a course in thermodynamics.

The first objective of statistical mechanics is to explain the fundamental laws of thermodynamics from first principles based on the atomic structure of matter. This problem was attacked successfully first by MAXWELL and CLAUSIUS in studies on the kinetic theory of gases. It will be treated briefly in Sec. II-A, to gain some understanding and experience before dealing with more general problems. The second objective is then to calculate thermodynamics quantities from the microscopic laws governing the atomic motion. Whenever we try to lay the foundation of thermodynamics on an atomistic theory, we are confronted with a very strange situation. The thermodynamical state of a system is defined uniquely by only a few quantities, such as pressure, volume, energy, temperature, flow velocities, etc. In contrast, the atomistic descrip tion needs an enormous number of variables to define a state, e. g. , positions and velocities of all the atoms involved in classical mechanics or Schrodinger's wave function of the corresponding N body-problem in quantum mechanics. Classical mechanics, for instance, can predict the future development only if all the positions and velocities are known, say at time t = O. The number of values needed for this 23 purpose is of the order of 10 . Actually, only a few parameters are at our disposal from thermodynamics. Therefore, from thermodynamics we know almost nothing about the atomistic situation.