Abstract
Dynamics, as you have learned in previous courses, is the study of how particles and rigid bodies move under the action of the forces and moments that are exerted on them. Thermodynamics is the theory that integrates dynamics with the concept of temperature. Dynamics is a fundamental part of physics because of Newton’s second law, which describes how the momentum of a fixed quantity of matter evolves in time.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Actually f is not determined exactly, rather we establish that \(f_-<f<f_+\), and we say that L is greater than \(n+f_-\) and less than \(n+f_+\) times \(L_s\). The difference \(f_+-f_-=2p\) is an indication of the precision of the measurement, and is usually included compactly in reporting the result of the measurement by writing \([(n+f)\pm p]\, L_s\), where \(f=(f_++f_-)/2\).
- 2.
The second is chosen because it can be defined with greater precision than other standards in this atomic age. Its definition is 1 s = 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom.
- 3.
The modern definition of the meter is the distance light travels in 1/299,792,458 s in a vacuum.
- 4.
Historically the yard, equal to 3 ft, was a standard length maintained by the British government in the Tower of London, and the meter was a standard length maintained by the French government at its Bureau of Standards in Sèvres. This is no longer the case as noted in the previous footnote.
- 5.
Current cosmological measurements give the age of the universe as 13.799 billion±21 million years.
- 6.
Weight is not transitive (see Sect. 1.2) so we can not use a balance to compare weights at different locations.
- 7.
At the time this was written, November 2018, a new definition of the kilogram, based on specifying the value of Plank’s constant as \(h=6.62607015\times 10^{-34}\) kg m\(^2\)/s, is being proposed to the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM), which is an international body tasked with acting on matters related to measurement science and measurement standards on behalf of its member nations. When this definition is accepted there will be no need to keep a standard mass.
- 8.
Bold face letters designate vectors. Here the symbol denotes the vector from an origin to the point in question.
- 9.
We have used the name English System here because it is widely used. However, the only major country in which it is used is the USA. All other English speaking countries use the SI for scientific and industrial work.
- 10.
The traction at a point is dependent on the direction of n, while the stress tensor, T, is not. That is what makes the stress tensor a physically important quantity, and is why you spent a lot of time learning about it in your course on strength of materials.
- 11.
we write only the component of the vector equation for the direction normal to the right vertical wall, Sect. 1.3.6. The positive direction is to the right and is outward pointing.
- 12.
We will study this fully in the next chapter.
- 13.
In connection with temperature measurement, the transitivity assumption required for all indirect comparisons [see Eq. (1.1)] is given a special name, the zeroth law of thermodynamics.
- 14.
In 1967 the ideal gas temperature was defined in terms of the hotness of the triple point of water (the condition at which the solid, liquid, and vapor phases are simultaneously in equilibrium), \(T_T=273.16\) K. This number was chosen to maintain other characteristics of the scale close to their previously established values, \(T_i=273.15\)K and \(T_s-T_i=100\) K.
- 15.
The most notable exception to this rule is water between 0 \(^\circ \)C and 4 \(^\circ \)C at atmospheric pressure.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Whitman, A.M. (2020). Measurement and Properties of Matter. In: Thermodynamics: Basic Principles and Engineering Applications. Mechanical Engineering Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25221-2_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25221-2_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-25220-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-25221-2
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)