Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Thermal physics, generally speaking, is the study of the statistical nature of physical systems from an energetic perspective. Starting with the basics of heat and temperature, thermal physics analyzes the first law of thermodynamics and second law of thermodynamics from the statistical perspective, in terms of the number of microstates corresponding to a given macrostate.
Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics, developed with especial reference to the rational foundation of thermodynamics. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons . Sommerfeld, Arnold ; ed: F. Bopp, J. Meixner (1952).
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 .
In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. Sometimes called statistical physics or statistical thermodynamics, its applications include many problems in the fields of physics, biology, [1] chemistry, neuroscience, [2] computer science, [3] [4] information theory [5] and ...
Lectures on Theoretical Physics is a six-volume series of physics textbooks translated from Arnold Sommerfeld's classic German texts Vorlesungen über Theoretische Physik. The series includes the volumes Mechanics , Mechanics of Deformable Bodies , Electrodynamics , Optics , Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics , and Partial Differential ...
The most common statistical ensembles have named partition functions. The canonical partition function applies to a canonical ensemble , in which the system is allowed to exchange heat with the environment at fixed temperature, volume, and number of particles .
The first part of the book starts by presenting the problem thermodynamics is trying to solve, and provides the postulates on which thermodynamics is founded. It then develops upon this foundation to discuss reversible processes, heat engines, thermodynamics potentials, Maxwell's relations, stability of thermodynamics systems, and first-order phase transitions.
According to energy conservation and energy being a state function that does not change over a full cycle, the work from a heat engine over a full cycle is equal to the net heat, i.e. the sum of the heat put into the system at high temperature, q H > 0, and the waste heat given off at the low temperature, q C < 0.