Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that studies the relations between, heat, temperature, and energy. A branch of math called statistics is often used in thermodynamics to look at the motion of particles.

Thermodynamics is useful because it helps us understand how the world of the very small atoms connects to the large scale world we see everyday.

Thermodynamics also has two main branches called classical thermodynamics^[1][2] and statistical thermodynamics.^[3][4][5] An important idea in thermodynamics is that of a thermodynamic system.

An example of a thermodynamic system is a brick. A brick is made up of many atoms which all have their own properties. All thermodynamic systems have two kinds of properties, extensive and intensive. For the brick, the extensive properties are the ones you get by adding up all the atoms. Things like the volume, energy, mass, and charge are extensive because two of the same brick put together have twice as much mass as one brick. The intensive properties of the brick are the ones you get by looking at the average over all atoms. Things like temperature, pressure, and density are intensive because two of the same brick still has the same temperature as one brick alone.

1. ↑ Pippard, A. B. (1964). Elements of classical thermodynamics: for advanced students of physics. Cambridge University Press.
2. ↑ Emanuel, G. (1988). Advanced classical thermodynamics. AIAA.
3. ↑ Hill, T. L. (1986). An introduction to statistical thermodynamics. Courier Corporation.
4. ↑ Fowler, R. H. (1939). Statistical thermodynamics. CUP Archive.
5. ↑ Schrödinger, E. (1989). Statistical thermodynamics. Courier Corporation.