Block by Block: The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics

Robert Hanlon

Explores from three perspectives: practicing engineer, academic, and historian
Range of foundational topics such as the atomic theory, energy, entropy, and the laws of thermodynamics
With a conversational writing approach making it accessible for students from many different technical backgrounds
One of the first to study the Big Bang and the Atom within thermodynamics

Block by Block: The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics

Robert Hanlon

Description

At the heart of many fields - physics, chemistry, engineering - lays 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.

Block by Block: The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics

Robert Hanlon

Introduction
Part 1 The Big Bang
1. The Big Bang: the science
2. The Big Bang: the discovery
Part 2 The Atom
3. The Atom: the science
4. The Atom: the discovery
Part 3 Energy and Conservation Laws
5. The science
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 ½ mv2
11. Bernoulli and Euler unite Newton and Leibniz
12. The conservation of mechanical energy
13. Heat
14. Joseph Black and the rise of heat capacity
15. Lavoisier and the birth of modern chemistry
16. The rise of the steam engine
17. Caloric
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 4 Entropy and the Laws of Thermodynamics
24. The science
25. The piston
26. England and the steam engine
27. The Newcomen engine
28. James Watt
29. Trevithick, Woolf and high-pressure steam
30. Sadi Carnot
31. Rudolph Clausius
32. William Thomson
33. The creation of thermodynamics
34. Clausius and the road to entropy
35. J. Willard Gibbs
36. Gibbs' 3rd paper
37. Practical applications of Gibbs' theories
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
Part 5
Conclusion
Acknowledgements and Bibliography

Block by Block: The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics

Robert Hanlon

Author Information

Robert Hanlon, Senior Lecturer, School of Chemical Engineering Practice, MIT, Massachusetts, USA

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.