Understanding Thermodynamics

Rating:
Summary: Graduate
Review: Concise descriptions of thermodynamics. Don't waste time with longer books. Some topics are not covered but this is a great place to start.

Rating:
Summary: Graduate
Review: Concise descriptions of thermodynamics. Don't waste time with longer books. Some topics are not covered but this is a great place to start.

Rating:
Summary: Okay But Fermi's Similar Book is Better
Review: Some subjects are intuitive, and some subjects are harder to grasp. I have studied engineering and physics for many years and was a professor for eight years. So I already have an understanding of the subject and in fact took graduate courses in physics at MIT in statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics.

So why buy this book. It is not a textbook. If you want to learn the nuts and bolts of thermodynamics buy a second year physics or engineering text and go through the theory and do hundreds of problems. That is how you learn the subject. You will not be able to design a better motor or turbine after reading the present book. You may not even learn much if you do not sit down and spend some time doing problems.

This book and the book by Fermi which is linked at the top of the present page by Amazon.com are sort of intellectual refresher books. Again thermodynamics is not an intuitively obvious subject so it is good to have a refresher from time to time. It is a summary lecture of the field. So I think it is a good book, a nice short book, but actually I prefer the short and perhaps more intuitive book by Fermi on the same subject, so I would rate the Fermi book 5 stars and this just 3 or 4 stars.

In any case, if you buy the book or better still the Fermi book, approach the book as if it were a novel or trip to the movies. Read it with a coke or glass of wine, and enjoy it as a lesson in physics from an expert where you get to think about some concepts from a pure interest and enjoyment perspective. If you do buy the book, you should have completed at least one or two years of science or engineering for maximum impact.

Jack in Toronto

Rating:
Summary: Deals with the abstractness
Review: Thermo is hard for two reasons. The equations are messy, and the properties are so abstract. Van Ness deals directly and only with the second problem. His discussion of energy functions and energy transformations just as rules between observables is very helpful. Using that notion to get at what he means by a property and then making entropy understandable as a PROPERTY of a system is the core of much of the book. The derivation of some basic stuff in statistical mechanics is quite clear, and the logical relationship to classical thermo is very clear. An index would be nice.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent to understand the subject
Review: This book is excellent. I have taken several thermodynamic courses but still the concepts seem too abstract to have a complete grasp of the subject. This books makes it clear. The combination of Understanding Thermodynamics and Thermodynamics by Fermi are a powerful refresher.

Rating:
Summary: Lucid Explanation of Thermodynamics - Highly Recommended
Review: Understanding Thermodynamics is an exceptional introduction to a subtle and complex topic. The First and Second Law of Thermodynamics are seemingly trivial, and yet an understanding of theoretical and applied thermodynamics often eludes even the best of students. This 100-page overview is much better than the chapter or two on thermodynamics in a first year physics text. It is a more lucid and interesting discussion than is even found in Feynman's Lectures in Physics, Volume 1.

H. C. Van Ness, a professor of chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and expert in thermodynamics, approaches his subject in an uniquely interesting fashion, stressing that the First and Second Law are assumptions based on empirical data. They are fundamental statements that cannot be derived from other principles.

In chapter 1 Van Ness borrows a humorous analogy from Feynman to explain the reasonableness of the abstract concept of internal energy and the relationship between internal energy, heat, and work.

Chapter 2 introduces the concept of reversibility, and explains its fundamental importance to thermodynamics. In doing so he carefully exposes our underlying assumptions.

In chapter 3, titled Heat Engines, Van Ness emphasizes that the reversible process represents the limiting behavior of actual systems, the best that we can hope for. Also, in most cases we are not even able to make calculations unless we simplify our problem by assuming that our system exhibits reversibility. Van Ness carefully explains the basic engineering calculations for both the Otto engine cycle and the Carnot theoretical heat engine.

In chapter 4 Van Ness guides the reader carefully through detailed thermodynamic analysis of a large scale power plant. In doing so, he provides an intriguing look at the unintended and unavoidable environmental impact of large power plants.

Van Ness introduces the Second Law of Thermodynamics by asking whether we can uncover any hidden relationships in a set of empirical data for reversible heat processes. After being led down several blind alleys, we unexpectedly discover a quantity that seems even more abstract than the concept of internal energy. We decide to call it entropy.

The last two chapters - More on the Second Law, and Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics - were slightly more difficult. The section on statistical mechanics would normally be found in a physical chemistry textbook.

The chapters are written in an informal manner, much like lectures. The mathematics assumes some calculus, but it is not any more difficult a first year physics text. It makes good independent reading, but Van Ness intended for Understanding Thermodynamics to be used along with a standard engineering or physics text. No problems sets are found at the end of the chapters.