Abstract
Much like other scientific disciplines, thermodynamics also has its own vocabulary. For instance, while dealing with objects composed of very large numbers of particles, one might use terms like: thermodynamic system; adiabatically isolating and adiabatically enclosing walls; adiabatic and non-adiabatic enclosures; conducting and/or diathermal walls; isothermal, isobaric, isochoric, quasi-static, reversible, and irreversible processes; state functions and state variables; thermodynamic equilibrium; and, of course, temperature in its various representations.
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Notes
- 1.
A. B. Pippard in “Classical Thermodynamics,” pages 7–11, Cambridge University Press, 1957.
- 2.
Pippard, Alfred Brian (9/7/1920)–(9/21/2008).
- 3.
By international agreement, the relative atomic mass of N A carbon-12 atoms is chosen to be exactly equal to 12. Note that a carbon-12, that is, 12 C 6, atom has six protons, and six neutrons. The Avogadro’s number, N A, is so chosen that the mass of N A carbon-12 atoms is exactly equal to 12 grams. Measured, thus, N A is equal to 6. 02214179(30) ×1023 mol − 1. References to one mole always specify N A particles whether they be atoms or molecules.
- 4.
Avogadro, Lorenzo Romano Amadeo Carlo (8/9/1776)–(6/9/1856).
- 5.
Note that both carbon and helium molecules are monatomic.
- 6.
Although we have chosen to represent p A as a function of (v A , p B , v B ), any other of these four variables could equally well have been chosen as a function of the remaining three.
- 7.
It bears noting that f 1(x, y, z) and f 2(x, y, z) are, in all likelihood, not the same functions. This is especially true if B and C are physically different systems.
- 8.
Note f 3(x, y, z), a function of the three variables x, y and z, is in all likelihood different from f 1(x, y, z) and f 2(x, y, z) encountered in (1.3) above.
- 9.
Such an empirical temperature could be defined by any appropriate thermometric property that both the systems share.
- 10.
It should be noted that the implications of the zeroth law are not limited to just simple thermodynamic systems. Systems with an arbitrary number of thermodynamic state variables also obey the zeroth law equally well.
- 11.
Note: some authors – for example, D. ter Haar and H. Wergeland, op. cit. – prefer to use the term total differential.
- 12.
Beginners usually benefit by being reminded that the operation \(\left ( \frac{\partial Z} {\partial X}\right )Y\) consists in finding a derivative of Z with respect to X while holding the variable Y constant.
- 13.
See any text on Differential Calculus, or see M. L. Boas in “Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences,” John Wiley, Publishers.
- 14.
Note, in order to convince oneself of the above statement one needs first to write down the two 2 ×2 determinants on the right hand side of (1.36); next to multiply them and write the result naturally as a 2 ×2 determinant. This resultant determinant consists of the four terms given as (1.37) and (1.38). It should be identical to the 2 ×2 determinant on the left hand side of (1.36).
- 15.
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Tahir-Kheli, R. (2012). Introduction and Zeroth Law. In: General and Statistical Thermodynamics. Graduate Texts in Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21481-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21481-3_1
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