Abstract
By definition, a thermodynamic system is a well-specified portion of the world around us. A system is separated from the environment (with which it can interact) by real or ideal walls. A system for which time is uniform and, therefore, energy is conserved, is said to be isolated. Isolated systems here shall always be considered enclosed within a well-defined volume; we assume that no field acts upon them, and they shall always be considered in a reference frame in which they are at rest. The pair system+environment shall always be considered an isolated system. In this section, unless otherwise specified, we shall consider only isolated systems.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Battaglia, F., George, T.F. (1998). Thermodynamics. In: Fundamentals in Chemical Physics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1636-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1636-9_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5082-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-1636-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive