Abstract

Thermodynamics is a discipline with broad applications based on three basic principles: Conservation of mass, conservation of energy (first law), and isolated systems evolve toward an equilibrium, time-invariant state in which temperature and pressure are spatially uniform, and in composition is uniform in each phase (ie, vapor, liquid, or solid). It is shown here how these principles lead to a broad range of applications. These include the analysis of heat engines, heat pumps (refrigerators), turbines, fuel cells, and understanding and predicting phase transitions among the solid, liquid, and vapor phases in both pure fluids and mixtures and chemical equilibria.