Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics (Greek: thermos = heat and dynamis = power) is the physics of heat, work, enthalpy, and entropy changes in relation to the spontaneity of processes. In origins, thermodynamics is the study of engines. Prior to 1698, with the invention of the Savery Engine, horses were used to "power" pulleys, attached to buckets, which lifted water out of flooded salt mines in England. In the years to follow, more variations of steam engines were built; as the Newcomen Engine, and later the Watt Engine. In time, these early engines would eventually be utilized in place of horses. Thus, each engine began to be associated with a certain amount of "horse power" depending upon how many horses it had replaced! The main problem with these first engines was that they were slow and clumsy, converting less than 2% of the input fuel into useful work. In other words, large quantities of coal (or wood) had to be burned to yield only a small fraction of work output. Hence the need for a new science of engine dynamics was born.

References

• {{Book reference | Author=Kroemer, Herbert; Kittle, Charles | Title=Thermal Physics | Publisher=W. H. Freeman Company | Year=1980 | ID=ISBN 0716710889}}
• {{Book reference | Author=Cengel, Yunus A.; Boles, Michael A. | Title=Thermodynamics - An Engineering Approach | Publisher=McGraw-Hill | Year=2005 | ID=ISBN 0073107689}}