In Praise of Clausius Entropy 01/26/2021
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Bluff Your Way in the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Bluff your way in the Second Law of Thermodynamics Jos Uffink Department of History and Foundations of Science Utrecht University, P.O.Box 80.000, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands e-mail: uffi[email protected] 5th July 2001 ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to analyse the relation between the second law of thermodynamics and the so-called arrow of time. For this purpose, a number of different aspects in this arrow of time are distinguished, in particular those of time-(a)symmetry and of (ir)reversibility. Next I review versions of the second law in the work of Carnot, Clausius, Kelvin, Planck, Gibbs, Caratheodory´ and Lieb and Yngvason, and investigate their connection with these aspects of the arrow of time. It is shown that this connection varies a great deal along with these formulations of the second law. According to the famous formulation by Planck, the second law expresses the irreversibility of natural processes. But in many other formulations irreversibility or even time-asymmetry plays no role. I therefore argue for the view that the second law has nothing to do with the arrow of time. KEY WORDS: Thermodynamics, Second Law, Irreversibility, Time-asymmetry, Arrow of Time. 1 INTRODUCTION There is a famous lecture by the British physicist/novelist C. P. Snow about the cul- tural abyss between two types of intellectuals: those who have been educated in literary arts and those in the exact sciences. This lecture, the Two Cultures (1959), characterises the lack of mutual respect between them in a passage: A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have 1 with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of sci- entists. -
Blackbody Radiation: (Vibrational Energies of Atoms in Solid Produce BB Radiation)
Independent study in physics The Thermodynamic Interaction of Light with Matter Mirna Alhanash Project in Physics Uppsala University Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Blackbody Radiation: (vibrational energies of atoms in solid produce BB radiation) .................................... 4 Stefan-Boltzmann .............................................................................................................................................................. 6 Wien displacement law..................................................................................................................................................... 7 Photoelectric effect ......................................................................................................................................................... 12 Frequency dependence/Atom model & electron excitation .................................................................................. 12 Why we see colours ....................................................................................................................................................... 14 Optical properties of materials: .................................................................................................................................. -
Ludwig Boltzmann Was Born in Vienna, Austria. He Received His Early Education from a Private Tutor at Home
Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906) Ludwig Boltzmann was born in Vienna, Austria. He received his early education from a private tutor at home. In 1863 he entered the University of Vienna, and was awarded his doctorate in 1866. His thesis was on the kinetic theory of gases under the supervision of Josef Stefan. Boltzmann moved to the University of Graz in 1869 where he was appointed chair of the department of theoretical physics. He would move six more times, occupying chairs in mathematics and experimental physics. Boltzmann was one of the most highly regarded scientists, and universities wishing to increase their prestige would lure him to their institutions with high salaries and prestigious posts. Boltzmann himself was subject to mood swings and he joked that this was due to his being born on the night between Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday (or between Carnival and Lent). Traveling and relocating would temporarily provide relief from his depression. He married Henriette von Aigentler in 1876. They had three daughters and two sons. Boltzmann is best known for pioneering the field of statistical mechanics. This work was done independently of J. Willard Gibbs (who never moved from his home in Connecticut). Together their theories connected the seemingly wide gap between the macroscopic properties and behavior of substances with the microscopic properties and behavior of atoms and molecules. Interestingly, the history of statistical mechanics begins with a mathematical prize at Cambridge in 1855 on the subject of evaluating the motions of Saturn’s rings. (Laplace had developed a mechanical theory of the rings concluding that their stability was due to irregularities in mass distribution.) The prize was won by James Clerk Maxwell who then went on to develop the theory that, without knowing the individual motions of particles (or molecules), it was possible to use their statistical behavior to calculate properties of a gas such as viscosity, collision rate, diffusion rate and the ability to conduct heat. -
The Theory of Dissociation”
76 Bull. Hist. Chem., VOLUME 34, Number 2 (2009) PRIMARY DOCUMENTS “The Theory of Dissociation” A. Horstmann Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie, 1873, 170, 192-210. W. Thomson was the first to take note of one of (Received 11 October 1873) the consequences of the mechanical theory of heat (1) - namely that the entire world is continuously approaching, It is characteristic of dissociation phenomena that a via the totality of all natural processes, a limiting state in reaction, in which heat overcomes the force of chemical which further change is impossible. Repose and death attraction, occurs for only a portion of a substance, even will then reign over all and the end of the world will though all of its parts have been equally exposed to the have arrived. same influences. In the remaining portion, the forces of chemical attraction, which are the only reason for the Clausius (2) knew how to give this conclusion a reaction to proceed in the opposite direction, maintain mathematical form by constructing a quantity—the the upper hand. Hence, for such reactions there is a entropy—which increases during all natural changes limiting state which the molecular system in question but which cannot be decreased by any known force of approaches irrespective of the initial state and, once it is nature. The limiting state is, therefore, reached when reached, neither heat nor chemical forces can produce the entropy of the world is as large as possible. Then further change so long as the external conditions remain the only possible processes that can occur are those for constant. -
Physics/9803005
UWThPh-1997-52 27. Oktober 1997 History and outlook of statistical physics 1 Dieter Flamm Institut f¨ur Theoretische Physik der Universit¨at Wien, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria Email: [email protected] Abstract This paper gives a short review of the history of statistical physics starting from D. Bernoulli’s kinetic theory of gases in the 18th century until the recent new developments in nonequilibrium kinetic theory in the last decades of this century. The most important contributions of the great physicists Clausius, Maxwell and Boltzmann are sketched. It is shown how the reversibility and the recurrence paradox are resolved within Boltzmann’s statistical interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics. An approach to classical and quantum statistical mechanics is outlined. Finally the progress in nonequilibrium kinetic theory in the second half of this century is sketched starting from the work of N.N. Bogolyubov in 1946 up to the progress made recently in understanding the diffusion processes in dense fluids using computer simulations and analytical methods. arXiv:physics/9803005v1 [physics.hist-ph] 4 Mar 1998 1Paper presented at the Conference on Creativity in Physics Education, on August 23, 1997, in Sopron, Hungary. 1 In the 17th century the physical nature of the air surrounding the earth was es- tablished. This was a necessary prerequisite for the formulation of the gas laws. The invention of the mercuri barometer by Evangelista Torricelli (1608–47) and the fact that Robert Boyle (1627–91) introduced the pressure P as a new physical variable where im- portant steps. Then Boyle–Mariotte’s law PV = const. -
The Philosophy and Physics of Time Travel: the Possibility of Time Travel
University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well Honors Capstone Projects Student Scholarship 2017 The Philosophy and Physics of Time Travel: The Possibility of Time Travel Ramitha Rupasinghe University of Minnesota, Morris, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/honors Part of the Philosophy Commons, and the Physics Commons Recommended Citation Rupasinghe, Ramitha, "The Philosophy and Physics of Time Travel: The Possibility of Time Travel" (2017). Honors Capstone Projects. 1. https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/honors/1 This Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Philosophy and Physics of Time Travel: The possibility of time travel Ramitha Rupasinghe IS 4994H - Honors Capstone Project Defense Panel – Pieranna Garavaso, Michael Korth, James Togeas University of Minnesota, Morris Spring 2017 1. Introduction Time is mysterious. Philosophers and scientists have pondered the question of what time might be for centuries and yet till this day, we don’t know what it is. Everyone talks about time, in fact, it’s the most common noun per the Oxford Dictionary. It’s in everything from history to music to culture. Despite time’s mysterious nature there are a lot of things that we can discuss in a logical manner. Time travel on the other hand is even more mysterious. -
Josiah Willard Gibbs
GENERAL ARTICLE Josiah Willard Gibbs V Kumaran The foundations of classical thermodynamics, as taught in V Kumaran is a professor textbooks today, were laid down in nearly complete form by of chemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Josiah Willard Gibbs more than a century ago. This article Science, Bangalore. His presentsaportraitofGibbs,aquietandmodestmanwhowas research interests include responsible for some of the most important advances in the statistical mechanics and history of science. fluid mechanics. Thermodynamics, the science of the interconversion of heat and work, originated from the necessity of designing efficient engines in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Engines are machines that convert heat energy obtained by combustion of coal, wood or other types of fuel into useful work for running trains, ships, etc. The efficiency of an engine is determined by the amount of useful work obtained for a given amount of heat input. There are two laws related to the efficiency of an engine. The first law of thermodynamics states that heat and work are inter-convertible, and it is not possible to obtain more work than the amount of heat input into the machine. The formulation of this law can be traced back to the work of Leibniz, Dalton, Joule, Clausius, and a host of other scientists in the late 17th and early 18th century. The more subtle second law of thermodynamics states that it is not possible to convert all heat into work; all engines have to ‘waste’ some of the heat input by transferring it to a heat sink. The second law also established the minimum amount of heat that has to be wasted based on the absolute temperatures of the heat source and the heat sink. -
Episode 1: Phis Wants to Be a Physicist
Episode 1: Phis wants to be a physicist Illustration: Xia Hong Script: Xia Hong 12/2012 Phis is 14 years old. Like most kids of her age, she’s a bit anxious about finding the person inside her… She tried singing. Hmm… “You are very talented, Phis!” Her best friend Lizzy told her. Sports are also not her cup of tea… Episode 1: Phis wants to be a physicist 1 “I wish I could But why I’m short, but does height I’m very be as confident She’s smart. She’s pretty. matter?! confident! as Lizzy!” Phis And she is told her little taller than me! sister Chemi. No wonder she’s “Then I would so confident! know what I can do.” “Who says size doesn’t matter?” Phis is not convinced. “Just read the newspaper…” “It’s always good to be either really small or really big, not in between!” Even her name sounds sharp — it is the same as the Lizzy in Pride and Prejudice ! Chemi, don’t you think our names are a bit strange? Episode 1: Phis wants to be a physicist 2 Phis’s self-search reached a conclusion after a monthly Science Day event in school hosted by Ms. Allen. What I’ll show you today is the It is our fascinating pleasure world of to have quantum Prof. Lee mechanics. here. Imagine, we live in the quantum world. Quantum We have to comply to its rules, and behave very We no longer have a differently from certain answer for things our normal life. -
Entropy (Order and Disorder)
Entropy (order and disorder) Locally, the entropy can be lowered by external action. This applies to machines, such as a refrigerator, where the entropy in the cold chamber is being reduced, and to living organisms. This local decrease in entropy is, how- ever, only possible at the expense of an entropy increase in the surroundings. 1 History This “molecular ordering” entropy perspective traces its origins to molecular movement interpretations developed by Rudolf Clausius in the 1850s, particularly with his 1862 visual conception of molecular disgregation. Sim- ilarly, in 1859, after reading a paper on the diffusion of molecules by Clausius, Scottish physicist James Clerk Boltzmann’s molecules (1896) shown at a “rest position” in a solid Maxwell formulated the Maxwell distribution of molec- ular velocities, which gave the proportion of molecules having a certain velocity in a specific range. This was the In thermodynamics, entropy is commonly associated first-ever statistical law in physics.[3] with the amount of order, disorder, or chaos in a thermodynamic system. This stems from Rudolf Clau- In 1864, Ludwig Boltzmann, a young student in Vienna, sius' 1862 assertion that any thermodynamic process al- came across Maxwell’s paper and was so inspired by it ways “admits to being reduced to the alteration in some that he spent much of his long and distinguished life de- way or another of the arrangement of the constituent parts veloping the subject further. Later, Boltzmann, in efforts of the working body" and that internal work associated to develop a kinetic theory for the behavior of a gas, ap- with these alterations is quantified energetically by a mea- plied the laws of probability to Maxwell’s and Clausius’ sure of “entropy” change, according to the following dif- molecular interpretation of entropy so to begin to inter- ferential expression:[1] pret entropy in terms of order and disorder. -
A New Look at Loschmidt's Representations of Benzene
Bull. Hist. Chem., VOLUME 38, Number 1 (2013) 29 150 YEARS AFTER THEIR EMERGENCE: A NEW LOOK AT LOSCHMIDT’S REPRESENTATIONS OF BENZENE Heinz D. Roth, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Wright-Rieman Laboratories, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08854-8087, [email protected] Abstract to Kekulé’s theories, because, in the summary of Alan Rocke, they were “at once too empirical and too specula- A new examination of structures that Loschmidt tive” (10); von Meyer criticized Kekulé for not giving considered for benzene derivatives, notably naphthalene credit to Frankland for the concept of valence or to Kolbe and “rings” doubly bonded to O or triply bonded to N, or for his many contributions (11). show conclusively that Loschmidt did not view benzene More recent criticism has its roots in the work as a planar ring of six carbon atoms. of Kekulé’s biographer and successor on the Chair in Bonn, Richard Anschütz. While compiling material for Introduction his two-volume Kekulé biography (12), Anschütz found references to Couper (13), who had developed the idea August Kekulé has long been credited with several of linking carbon atoms independent of Kekulé; he also major contributions to structural organic chemistry: rec- noticed a footnote in Kekulé’s 1865 paper concerning ognizing the tetravalence of carbon (1857) (1,2); recog- structural formulae by Loschmidt. This 1861 article (14) nizing that carbon atoms combine with one another to had been published outside of the established chemical form chains (1858) (3); and recognizing the structure of literature and was not readily available. Anschütz noted benzene (1865) (4), in the view of Japp, the “crowning that Loschmidt’s booklet was hard to read (15); therefore, achievement of the doctrine of the linking of atoms” (5). -
Entropy: Is It What We Think It Is and How Should We Teach It?
Entropy: is it what we think it is and how should we teach it? David Sands Dept. Physics and Mathematics University of Hull UK Institute of Physics, December 2012 We owe our current view of entropy to Gibbs: “For the equilibrium of any isolated system it is necessary and sufficient that in all possible variations of the system that do not alter its energy, the variation of its entropy shall vanish or be negative.” Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances, 1875 And Maxwell: “We must regard the entropy of a body, like its volume, pressure, and temperature, as a distinct physical property of the body depending on its actual state.” Theory of Heat, 1891 Clausius: Was interested in what he called “internal work” – work done in overcoming inter-particle forces; Sought to extend the theory of cyclic processes to cover non-cyclic changes; Actively looked for an equivalent equation to the central result for cyclic processes; dQ 0 T Clausius: In modern thermodynamics the sign is negative, because heat must be extracted from the system to restore the original state if the cycle is irreversible . The positive sign arises because of Clausius’ view of heat; not caloric but still a property of a body The transformation of heat into work was something that occurred within a body – led to the notion of “equivalence value”, Q/T Clausius: Invented the concept “disgregation”, Z, to extend the ideas to irreversible, non-cyclic processes; TdZ dI dW Inserted disgregation into the First Law; dQ dH TdZ 0 Clausius: Changed the sign of dQ;(originally dQ=dH+AdL; dL=dI+dW) dHdQ Derived; dZ 0 T dH Called; dZ the entropy of a body. -
Avogadro's Constant
Avogadro's Constant Nancy Eisenmenger Question Artem, 8th grade How \Avogadro constant" was invented and how scientists calculated it for the first time? Answer What is Avogadro's Constant? • Avogadros constant, NA: the number of particles in a mole • mole: The number of Carbon-12 atoms in 0.012 kg of Carbon-12 23 −1 • NA = 6:02214129(27) × 10 mol How was Avogadro's Constant Invented? Avogadro's constant was invented because scientists were learning about measuring matter and wanted a way to relate the microscopic to the macroscopic (e.g. how many particles (atoms, molecules, etc.) were in a sample of matter). The first scientists to see a need for Avogadro's constant were studying gases and how they behave under different temperatures and pressures. Amedeo Avogadro did not invent the constant, but he did state that all gases with the same volume, pressure, and temperature contained the same number of gas particles, which turned out to be very important to the development of our understanding of the principles of chemistry and physics. The constant was first calculated by Johann Josef Loschmidt, a German scientist, in 1865. He actually calculated the Loschmidt number, a constant that measures the same thing as Avogadro's number, but in different units (ideal gas particles per cubic meter at 0◦C and 1 atm). When converted to the same units, his number was off by about a factor of 10 from Avogadro's number. That may sound like a lot, but given the tools he had to work with for both theory and experiment and the magnitude of the number (∼ 1023), that is an impressively close estimate.