ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a review of thermodynamics, which of necessity must be rather condensed. Distinctly thermodynamic category is that of thermal quantities, temperature and entropy. Entropy—discovered through an analysis of the second law of thermodynamics—is an unexpected yet significant development. The time ordering of states linked by irreversible processes is a distinctive feature of thermodynamics, unlike any other in physics. The physical meaning of thermodynamic potentials can be inferred from the Clausius inequality. Thermodynamics is a “consistency machine” that relates known information about systems to quantities that might be difficult to measure. Thermodynamics is a science of matter and energy of great utility and generality. In thermodynamics, relatively few quantities are calculated. Maxwell relations are equalities between partial derivatives of state variables that ensue from the exactness of differentials of thermodynamic potentials. The duality between points and slopes achieved by Legendre transformation of convex functions is reflected in the formalism of thermodynamics as a duality between extensive and intensive variables.
