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.

See also

• History of thermodynamics
• important publications in thermodynamics
• Legendre transformation
• Onsager reciprocal relations - sometimes called the Fourth Law of Thermodynamics
• Statistical Mechanics
• Thermodynamic equations
• Thermodynamic properties
• Timeline of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and random processes
• Thermodynamics also touches upon the fields of:
• Calorimetry
• Fluid dynamics
• Phase equilibrium
• Thermal analysis
• Thermochemistry also known as chemical thermodynamics