Browse Hierarchy SPA5219: Thermodynamics

Thermal and Kinetic Physics is a course designed as an introduction to the notion of energy and its transformations. The thermodynamic methodology that is constructed, largely through the paradigm of the ideal gas, is widely applicable throughout the realm of physics. We begin by developing a language capable of dealing with the thermodynamic method and this requires that concepts of equilibrium and temperature are disentangled before work and heat are described in detail en route to the First Law of Thermodynamics. With the First Law many things become readily accessible to an analytic approach previously unavailable including; engines, refrigerators and heat pumps. Entropy will then make a natural appearance as a macroscopic thermodynamic variable in the build up to the Second Law of Thermodynamics with a brief look at its microscopic origins. New thermodynamic potentials including the Gibbs potential and the Helmholtz free energy, and their applications, are discussed in order to generalise further the thermodynamic method. Phase changes for simple systems are briefly covered and the Third law of Thermodynamics described. Finally an introduction to the kinetic description of gases in equilibrium and of phenomena such as diffusion and heat conduction will complete the module.