Block by Block the Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics

Abstract

This book entitled Block by Block the Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics provides a solid fundamental foundation interlaced among the three different worlds of academicians, practitioners, and historians. Most thermodynamic books focus only on problem solving using some laws and equations but lack in deep understanding of the concepts that are central to thermodynamics. This book takes the approach of providing inspiration, confidence, and creativity to students for ultimately solving a whole range of thermodynamic problems faced by chemical, mechanical, aerospace, and environmental engineers in academia and industry. It is easy to read, providing meaningful information to someone with little background in thermodynamics. Historical understanding combined with scientific understanding truly helps to enhance one’s understanding of thermodynamics. This 646-page book with over 11 pages of references is much different from most books on thermodynamics. The book is written in simple plain text with no equations, solved problems, or example problems at the end of a section or a chapter. The book focuses primarily on history perspectives, which are mostly omitted in thermodynamic books. It shares how the concepts and terminologies used today were elevated from their historical origins. These when combined with good scientific understanding enhance a good grasp of thermodynamics. The book has four parts. The first part is on Big Bang and the synthesis of the elements in the stars. The macroscopic thermodynamics is governed by the microscopic atomic world. The second part is on the atoms that can be thought of as hard spheres that attract and repel each other. The third part is on energy and conservation laws since one always has some cause behind an effect. The last part of the book is on entropy and the laws of thermodynamics. A broader discussion of the scientific method is provided as to how it appears and how it should be conducted. Contributions made are, in general, on similar processes with gathered data from some set of hypotheses to provide conclusions or to test against the reality to support the proposed hypothesis.