Properties of Ideal Gases and Van der Waals Fluids

Abstract

The ideal gas has always played a central role in the foundations of classical thermodynamics. Two important properties of ideal gases have been demonstrated and recorded in Chapter 3; another, at the end of Chapter 7. Ever since Carnot’s treatise was published, it has been clear that the specific heats of an ideal gas, which are connected through thermodynamic relations but not determined by them, open the door to the general theory. Although we shall defer our consideration of this fact until Chapters 15 and 16, here we derive ten more properties of ideal gases.