What is Thermodynamics?

Ch 1, Lesson A, Page 1 - What is Thermodynamics?

• In 1698, Thomas Savery invented the steam engine.
  The steam engine converted heat into mechanical power.
• The machine was used to pump water out of coal mines, but the principles behind its operation
  were not well-understood.
• In 1712, Thomas Newcomen built an improved steam engine, but it was expensive to build and not very reliable.
• James Watt invented the first inexpensive, reliable steam engine in 1765.  Watt’s steam engine was more than six times more efficient than Newcomen’s !
• Watt’s steam engine catalyzed the industrial revolution.
• In 1798, Count Rumford noticed that canons became hot as they were bored out.
• Rumsford showed that more heat was released in the boring process than could have been originally contained in the metal.
• He concluded that the mechanical boring process was producing heat.  This was a major departure from the caloric theory that was widely accepted at the time.
• In 1824, Carnot introduced ideal gas cycle analysis in his work “Reflection on the Motive Power of Fire”
• In the 1840’s Mayer, Joule and Helmholtz developed the idea that energy could not be created or destroyed.  Energy is conserved.
• This principle is now known as the 1st Law of Thermodynamics.  We will learn more about it in chapters 4 and 5.
• Rudolf Clausius stated that no cycle can transfer heat from a low temperature region to a high temperature region with no other interaction with its surroundings.
• This principle is known as the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and we will learn a great deal more about it in chapters 6 and 7.
• The contribution of these scientists and many others led to the development of the broad field of thermodynamics that we know today.
• So, what areas of thermodynamics will we study in this program ?  Flip the page and see.