Preface

Summary

Goals

The subject of thermodynamics was being developed on a postulatory basis long before we understood the nature or behavior of the elementary constituents of matter. As we became more familiar with these constituents, we were still slow to place our trust in the “new” field of quantum mechanics, which was telling us that their behaviors could be described correctly and accurately using probabilities and statistics.

The influence of this historical sequence has lingered in our traditional thermodynamics curriculum. Until recently, we continued to teach an introductory course using the more formal and abstract postulatory approach. Now, however, there is a growing feeling that the statistical approach is more effective. It demonstrates the firm physical and statistical basis of thermodynamics by showing how the properties of macroscopic systems are direct consequences of the behaviors of their elementary constituents. An added advantage of this approach is that it is easily extended to include some statistical mechanics in an introductory course. It gives the student a broader spectrum of skills as well as a better understanding of the physical bases.

This book is intended for use in the standard junior or senior undergraduate course in thermodynamics, and it assumes no previous knowledge of the subject. I try to introduce the subject as simply and succinctly as possible, with enough applications to indicate the relevance of the results but not so many as might risk losing the student in details.