Thermodynamics: a complete undergraduate course

This is an undergraduate textbook in thermodynamics—the science of heat, work, temperature, and entropy. The text presents thermodynamics in and of itself, as an elegant and powerful set of ideas and methods. These methods open the way to understanding a very wide range of phenomena in physics, chemistry, engineering, and biology. Starting out from an introduction of concepts at first year undergraduate level, the roles of temperature, internal energy, and entropy are explained via the laws of thermodynamics. The text employs a combination of examples, exercises, and careful discussion, with a view to conveying the feel of the subject as well as avoiding common misunderstandings. The Feynman–Smuluchowski ratchet, Szilard’s engine, and Maxwell’s daemon are used to elucidate entropy and the second law. Free energy and thermodynamic potentials are discussed at length, with applications to solids as well as fluids and flow processes. Thermal radiation is discussed, and the main ideas significant to global warming are explained. Stability, negative temperature, and negative heat capacity are also explained, with an example application to black holes and Hawking radiation. All the thermodynamics required for an undergraduate course in the physical sciences is covered, and a few areas are continued to introductory graduate level. The final chapters discuss continuous phase transitions, fluctuations, and introductory non-equilibrium thermodynamics (the Onsager reciprocal relations and thermoelectricity).