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At the heart of many fields - physics, chemistry, engineering - lies thermodynamics. While this science plays a critical role in determining the boundary between what is and is not possible in the natural world, it occurs to many as an indecipherable black box, thus making the subject a challenge to learn. Two obstacles contribute to this situation, the first being the disconnect between the fundamental theories and the underlying physics and the second being the
confusing concepts and terminologies involved with the theories. While one needn't confront either of these two obstacles to successfully use thermodynamics to solve real problems, overcoming both
provides access to a greater intuitive sense of the problems and more confidence, more strength, and more creativity in solving them. This book offers an original perspective on thermodynamic science and history based on the three approaches of a practicing engineer, academician, and historian. The book synthesises and gathers into one accessible volume a strategic range of foundational topics involving the atomic theory, energy, entropy, and the laws of thermodynamics.
At the heart of many fields - physics, chemistry, engineering - lies thermodynamics. While this science plays a critical role in determining the boundary between what is and is not possible in the natural world, it occurs to many as an indecipherable black box, thus making the subject a challenge to learn. Two obstacles contribute to this situation, the first being the disconnect between the fundamental theories and the underlying physics and the second being the
confusing concepts and terminologies involved with the theories. While one needn't confront either of these two obstacles to successfully use thermodynamics to solve real problems, overcoming both
provides access to a greater intuitive sense of the problems and more confidence, more strength, and more creativity in solving them. This book offers an original perspective on thermodynamic science and history based on the three approaches of a practicing engineer, academician, and historian. The book synthesises and gathers into one accessible volume a strategic range of foundational topics involving the atomic theory, energy, entropy, and the laws of thermodynamics.
List of Figures
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Part I - The Big Bang (and the synthesis of the elements in
stars)
1. The Big Bang: science
2. The Big Bang: discovery
Part II - The Atom (hard spheres that attract and repel each
other)
3. The Atom: science
4. The Atom: discovery
Part III - Energy and the Conservation Laws
5. Energy: science (and some history)
6. Motion prior to Galileo
7. Galileo and the Law of Fall
8. Newton and the Laws of Motion
9. The lever
10. The rise of mv2
11. Bernoulli and Euler unite Newton and Leibniz
12. Rudimentary version of the conservation of mechanical energy
(1750)
13. Heat: the missing piece to the puzzle
14. Joseph Black and the rise of heat capacity
15. Lavoisier and the birth of modern chemistry
16. Rise of the steam engine
17. Caloric theory: beginning of its end
18. The ideal gas
19. The final steps to energy and its conservation
20. Julius Robert Mayer
21. James Joule
22. The 1st Law of Thermodynamics
23. Epilogue: The mystery of beta decay
Part IV - Entropy and the Laws of Thermodynamics
24. Entropy: science (and some history)
25. It started with the piston
26. Britain and the steam engine
27. The Newcomen engine
28. James Watt
29. Trevithick, Woolf, and high-pressure steam
30. Sadi Carnot
31. Rudolf Clausius
32. William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)
33. The creation of thermodynamics
34. Clausius and the road to entropy
35. J. Willard Gibbs
36. Gibbs' 3rd paper
37. Practical applications & Gibbs energy (G)
38. Dissemination of Gibbs' work
39. The 2nd Law, entropy, and the chemists
40. Clausius: the kinetic theory of gases
41. Maxwell: the rise of statistical mechanics
42. Boltzmann: the probabilistic interpretation of entropy
43. Shannon: entropy and information theory
Afterword
Bibliography
Index
Epigraph Permissions
Dr. Robert T. Hanlon earned his Sc.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and subsequently conducted post-doctoral research at Karlsruhe University in Germany. His professional career took him to Mobil Oil Research & Development Corporation, the Rohm and Haas Company, and then back to MIT where he is currently involved with their School of Chemical Engineering Practice.
"This book takes the approach of providing inspiration, confidence and creativity to students for ultimately solving a whole range of thermodynamic problems faced by chemical, mechanical, aerospace and environmental engineers in academia and industry. It is easy to read, providing meaningful information to someone with little background in thermodynamics." -- Ashwani Gupta, J. Energy Resour. Technol., June 2022"an excellent (and very accessible) textbook... it should be on every refrigeration engineer's bookshelf" -- Andy Pearson, Star Refrigeration in Glasgow, Ashrae Journal"Hanlon has written a masterpiece, 18 years in the making, a lifetime of learning, has resulted in perhaps the most thoroughly readable book on thermodynamics out there... we not only learn about the history of thermodynamics in Block by Block, we learn about the fundamentals of thermodynamics without getting overwhelmed with equations and mathematics. This should probably be a required textbook in school - learning about the foundations of thermodynamics before trying to work out the math would be the smartest way to master the subject." -- Mike Pauken, Senior Engineer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and author of Thermodynamics for Dummies"This book is for those who frequently ask "why is this happening?" instead of "what is happening?" That's why this book is different than any textbook on this subject. It is such a rich material, organized in the way that gives to the reader (being an experienced professional or an under-graduate student) the ability to question and understand the concepts behind the Laws of Thermodynamics. The most important, reading this book is like reading a novel about a very exciting subject." -- Dr Roger Riehl, National Institute for Space Research (INPE)"This is the book I wish I had 25 years ago! Bob Hanlon describes in beautiful detail the meaning behind thermodynamics concepts that our teachers and books missed. He provides new perspectives on entropy, heat and work, and statistical mechanics. Along the way we get to meet our heroes, people like Carnot, Clausius, of course Gibbs. A gem of a book!" -- Darrell Velegol, Distinguished Professor, Penn State University
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