Question

What is Thermodynamics?

Answer

Thermodynamics is the branch of physics that deals with the concepts of heat and other forms of energy. Thermodynamics is a macroscopic science. It deals with bulk systems and does not go into the molecular constitution of matter. In fact, its concepts and laws were formulated in the nineteenth century before the molecular picture of matter was firmly established. Thermodynamics description involves relatively few macroscopic variables of the system, which are suggested by common sense and can be usually measured directly. A microscopic description of a gas, for example, would involve specifying the co-ordinates and velocities of the huge number of molecules constituting the gas. The description in kinetic theory of gases is not so detailed but it does involve molecular distribution of velocities. Thermodynamics description of a gas, on the other hand, avoids the molecular description altogether. Instead, the state of a gas in Thermodynamics is specified by macroscopic variables such as pressure, volume, temperature, mass and composition that are felt by our sense perceptions and are measurable.