ABSTRACT
Thermodynamics originated as a subject in mechanical engineering at the start of the industrial revolution when, steam generated from burning coal was utilized to run machinery. The quest to improve the efficiency of devices that convert heat into useful work led to the evolution of engineering thermodynamics. The laws of thermodynamics, based on experiments, have come to be regarded as being among the fundamental laws of the Universe. They are applied in diverse areas such as financial markets, cosmology, computing, bio-technology and agriculture, to name a few. The second law has a particularly special place in our minds because it seems to explain so many occurrences in our daily life. Properties such as pressure, density, temperature and so on of the thermodynamic systems under consideration will be known without any ambiguity. In other words, a statement that the pressure of air in a vessel is a certain value, implicitly assumes that continuum prevails.
