Entropy and energy. A universal competion. With CD-ROM (Q877275)

The authors of the present book understand energy and entropy -- or loosely termed ``cause and chance'' -- as two physical parameters being in a universal competition. At high temperatures the random walk of the system particles is of importance, and the system entropy grows. At low temperatures, the particles freeze in its energetic minima. In the book, this competition is demonstrated by instructive examples from elementary thermodynamics and physico-chemistry, but also by non-standard thermodynamic subjects like shape memory, dissipation of the earth's atmosphere, and sociology. Works of the thermodynamic pioneers are reviewed and revisited. The zeroth and the third laws of thermodynamics and their limitations are discussed, also the Gibbs paradox. The book starts with the origin of the term entropy in the work of Clausius. Chap.\ 2 considers the term entropy in the work of Carathéodory, and for definiteness, its illustration for visco-elastic bodies. After that, Boltzmann's work is reviewed as far as it concerns the entropy. Enthalpy is introduced as the combination of internal energy of a body plus potential energy of a dead load that produces the pressure. Then the elasticity of ideal monatomic gases and amorphous rubber are compared and shown to be both entropy-induced - entropic forces may be expansive or contractive. In chap.\ 6 the need of statistical thermodynamics is explained, the canonical ensemble is discussed, and the partition function of a hydrogen atom at rest in a heat bath is calculated. In chap.\ 7, it is shown that a minimization of the energy and an increase of the entropy conduct to a minimum of the available free energy of a system. At small system temperature, the mass distribution will be such that it minimizes the energy. On the other hand, at large system temperature, the mass will arrange itself so as to maximize the entropy. Thus there is a competition between energy and entropy, and as a result of that competition neither the energy attains a minimum nor the entropy a maximum. Rather the available free energy attains a minimum. That resultant minimum is close to the energetic one for low temperatures and close to the entropic maximum for high temperatures. The subsequent chapters contain examples for these competition, chap.\ 8 discusses planetary atmospheres, chap.\ 9 mixing of chemical constituents. Chapter 10 explains phase transitions as an abrupt change from an energy-dominated low-temperature situation to an entropy-dominated high-temperature one at one temperature and one pressure. Phase diagrams are considered in chap.\ 11. Balances between heat and entropy of chemical reactions are analysed in chap.\ 12. A thermodynamic, a kinetic and a numerical model for shape memory alloys are developed in chap.\ 13. The third law of thermodynamics -- the ``capitulation'' of entropy - is considered in chap.\ 14. Chapter 15 demonstrates the difference of thermodynamic temperature and kinetic temperature (as measure for the mean kinetic energy) in non-equilibrium states. The tensioral relation between heat flux and entropy flux is shown. How the Gibbs paradox of statistical mechanics can be resolved considering degeneracy of gases is explained in chap.\ 16. The thermodynamics of irreversible processes is very briefly reviewed in chap.\ 17, where an explicit expression for the dissipative entropy source in a viscous, heat-conducting fluid is derived. This expression is used in chap.\ 18 for the estimate of dissipation in the context of the entropy increase of radiation. The dissipative entropy source in the atmosphere of the earth is determined in chap.\ 19. Chapter 20 presents an attempt at the formulation of sociothermodynamics, a theory that may conceivably be able to describe the phenomena of segregation and desegregation in an ethnically mixed population. Finally, a short history of thermodynamics is presented in chap.\ 21. Some literature is quoted at the end of the book along with commentaries and annotations. The accompanying CD provides instructive visualizations of the entropy-elastic spring and of phase transitions in fluids and shape memory alloys. The reader has numerous possibilities to influence the programs and thus to develop an understanding of the thermodynamic principles involved in those phenomena. The book may be read by newcomers in thermodynamics, but it is probably best, if he has already some prior knowledge of thermodynamics.