What caused the expanding universe to cool? (It may not be what you think)
Expansion leads to cooling. That’s what I was taught anyway. And so when I read that the expansion following the Big Bang caused the universe to cool, I first thought, “okay…” But then I thought some more. “Wait a minute! Expansion against what???” The reason a system cools as it expands it that it pushes…
The neutron: unsung hero of the periodic table
Neutrons: The Glue That Holds the Nucleus Together It was a race against time. The Big Bang released protons, neutrons, electrons, and photons into the newly generated and rapidly expanding universe. With a half-life of only 10 minutes, though, the free neutrons rapidly plummeted toward extinction. What saved them? The protons! As detailed by Steven…
My personal stories on those who inspired me
Several individuals inspired me in my journey to create a new thermodynamics based on the atomic theory of matter. Their collective inspiration manifests itself throughout my book, especially in Chapters 3 and 4 on the science and the history of the atom, respectively. Who were these individuals? Naturally Richard Feynman, whom I’ve quoted before (here)……
Impactful illustrations of scientific concepts
I took a wonderful one-day seminar by Edward Tufte a long while ago titled “Analyzing/Presenting Data/Information” and was blown away by the possibilities he opened inside my mind. I walked out of the seminar deeply inspired to create illustrations for my book beyond the standard linear timelines and black & white photos of the early…
The Big Bang, Thermodynamics, and Silos
“It is difficult to see why the book starts with a chapter on the big bang and nuclear synthesis, which were considered and understood well after thermodynamics was born. For my own taste, I would simply eliminate the big-bang chapters.” – early reviewer of my book Oxford University Press did an absolutely wonderful job in…
Why the Mark Helprin quote in my Introduction?
Full access to Block by Block’s Introduction—and then some! they certainly share a lot!—is available on google books here (pp. xiii-xx). The Introduction shares the motivations that drove me along with the structure I created to guide me. In keeping with the intent of the series of posts I plan on publishing for the foreseeable…
Don’t let your friends off the hook. Challenge them to take action on their dreams.
1998 Me: I think I want to write a book.Friend: Does that mean you’re going to write it?Me: (to myself) oh noMe: (with sweating palms) Yes I shared a someday-maybe dream with a friend and she challenged me. “Are you going to do it or not?” When I said, with some fear of the task…
Gibbs free energy: G or ∆G?
One of my objectives in creating a more effective approach to teaching thermodynamics is to bring clarity to some of the confusing terms and concepts embedded in this field. Initially I focused on the concept of heat by pointing out that there is no such thing. I now turn toward free energy. As a very…
Pauli exclusion is not a repulsive force, and yet…
“It’s not a force.” – Professor Steven Weinberg I made a mistake. In my book, Block by Block, I wrote about the attraction and repulsion forces between atoms. For the former, I stated that attraction results from the fact that atoms act like spinning magnets; they contain a positive charge (proton) that is separated from…
Career decision making – trust your gut
When I give thermodynamics presentations to high school and college students, I begin with a 10-minute discussion about career decision-making based on my own experiences. I now share this discussion with you, both to provide you with helpful and hopefully inspiring ideas and to also seek your feedback. Do your thoughts align with mine? Let…
Why I paid $100 for a Vonnegut quote
Publisher: “Before we go to print, we just wanted to make sure you got permissions for the epigraphs in your book.” Me: “What’s an epigraph?” As I was traveling through the final stages of publishing my book, I learned that there are two approaches to using a quote. One is to embed the quote in…
Newton: On whose shoulders did he stand?
No Newton, no Principia. That much is clear. But did Newton do it alone? He was naturally exposed to the ideas of such predecessors as Descartes and Galileo and such contemporaries as Leibniz and Huygens. That this collective influenced Newton is reflected in his own writing, “If I have seen further it is by standing…
How did Galileo measure time?
Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science – Steven Hawking [1] Galileo was fascinated by motion and continually experimented with pendulums, cannons, and rolling balls to understand why bodies move the way they do. The arguable culmination of these efforts occurred in 1604 when he discovered…
Science and the power of multiple hypotheses
When asked my opinion on various science-related topics that are in the news, my usual reply is, “I don’t know.” It’s not that I’m incapable of knowing. It’s that I haven’t studied the topics in enough detail to have a well-grounded opinion. My scientific expertise lays elsewhere, in a less popular news cycle. HOWEVER If…
Joule-Thomson Effect (Part 2) – my hypothesis
In a previous video (here), I stated my belief that a better understanding of thermodynamics is available by identifying the connections between the micro-world of moving and interacting atoms and the macro-world of classical thermodynamics. My goal is to do just this. My starting point? The Joule-Thomson effect, which is the temperature change that occurs…
Goggins, Full Capability, and “Atoms First” Thermodynamics
David Goggins, ex-Navy SEAL, now ultra-athlete and motivational speaker, shared in a popular YouTube video (JRE #1212) something that I found incredibly motivating. His biggest fear, and I paraphrase here, is that he arrives at the gates of Heaven and sees God there with a clipboard, holding a list of many great accomplishments. Goggins’ fear…
Thermodynamic “pain point” results – here are your responses
I believe that a better understanding of thermodynamics is available by explaining the connections between the micro-world of moving and colliding atoms that attract and repel each other and the macro-world of classical thermodynamics. My goal is to identify and clarify such micro-to-macro connections. To ensure that I’m addressing true needs of the science community,…
What are your personal “pain points” with thermodynamics?
What are your personal “pain points” with thermodynamics? What are the stumbling blocks you encounter when trying to understand the physical meaning behind such thermodynamic equations and phenomena as Gibbs Free Energy, Joule-Thomson expansion, phase change, and even the physical properties of matter, including heat capacity and absolute temperature? Could you please share these with me in…
The Road to Entropy – Boltzmann and his probabilistic entropy
Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906) brought his mastery of mathematics to the kinetic theory of gases and provided us with our first mechanical understanding of entropy. To Boltzmann, his work proved that entropy ALWAYS increases or remains constant. But to others, most notably Josef Loschmidt (1821-1895), his work contained a paradox that needed to be addressed. Loschmidt…
The Road to Entropy – The kinetic theory of gases & heat capacity
I believe that an improved approach to teaching thermodynamics can be created by starting with the atomic theory of matter and then explaining the connections between this theory and macroscopic thermodynamic phenomena. This micro-to-macro approach arguably began in the late 19th century when a small group of scientists, namely Rudolf Clausius, James Clerk Maxwell, and…
The Road to Entropy – Clausius, Gibbs, and increasing entropy
At the conclusion of his famed 1865 paper announcing the discovery of a new property of matter that he named entropy, Rudolf Clausius stated: the entropy of the universe tends to a maximum. This statement came as a total surprise to me as there was no prior supportive discussion behind it, and it had me…
The Road to Entropy – Clausius undaunted
Have you ever experienced that wondrous “Eureka!” moment of insight when you’ve discovered some hidden secret of nature? Archimedes did when he realized that the volume of water displaced is equal to the volume of the body submerged. Kekulé did when discovered benzene’s structure. Hubble did when he discovered that the stars are all moving…
The Road to Entropy – James Joule and the power of his curiosity (video)
James Joule could have observed what he did and then done nothing with it. Instead, he became driven to understand and explain it and so discovered the mechanical equivalent of heat, a forerunner of the concept of energy and the 1st law of Thermodynamics. His story is a good one, an inspiring one, an example…
The Road to Entropy – Sadi Carnot’s use of analogy to create his “flawed” masterpiece (video)
The commercialization of the high-pressure steam engines by the Cornish Engineers of Britain inspired Sadi Carnot, a French military engineer, to analyze these engines and seek the theories to guide their improvement. If you’re interested in doing a deep dive into Sadi Carnot’s work, here are two excellent references. I go into much more depth…
The oldest surviving steam engine is on display at the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation in Michigan
I was traveling in Michigan this past week and took a day to visit the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation. All I can say is, WOW! Together with the adjacent Greenfield Village, well worth the visit. The Innovation Museum offers great displays of engine technologies, including the oldest surviving steam engine in the world, a…
The Road to Entropy – Phil Hosken on Richard Trevithick and the invention of the high-pressure steam engine (video)
As shared in my previous post (here), the historical road to entropy started with Denis Papin’s development of the piston-in-cylinder assembly and Thomas Newcomen’s and James Watt’s subsequent efforts to commercialize and continuously improve fire engines or atmospheric engines built around this assembly. Steam at atmospheric pressure was employed in these engines, not as a…
The Road to Entropy – The Newcomen and Watt “Steam” Engines (videos)
The road to entropy began with the 18th century development of the “steam” engine by Thomas Newcomen and James Watt. But steam was not the driving force in these engines. So what was? And what was the purpose of the steam? Check out this video for the answers: Note the shout-out in the video to…
Riddle me this: why does dS = 0 for reversible, adiabatic expansion?
While attending an event in Syracuse, New York, I got to talking with an older chemical engineer who had once worked with my dad at Bristol-Myers Laboratories. I shared that I was writing a book on thermodynamics and we spoke some about this. At the conclusion, he looked at me and said, “You know, I…
Thermodynamics: What is “heat”? (video)
The word “heat” can be very confusing to those trying to learn and understand thermodynamics. I created the below video to help clarify things. I go into more detail about this topic and many others in my book Block by Block – The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics.
Riddle me this: what is the physical significance of T∆S in Gibbs’ maximum work equation?
Remember this? Maximum work = -∆Grxn = -(∆Hrxn – T∆Srxn) At some point toward the end of undergraduate thermodynamics, we were taught this equation. Unfortunately, most of us, myself included, graduated without actually understanding it. Why? You already know the answer, just by looking at it. Because entropy is involved. While many have a reasonable…
Like a Bird – Flying Balloons on Other Planets
* * * For this post I invited back fellow thermodynamics enthusiast Mike Pauken, principal engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and author of Thermodynamics for Dummies, to complete this 3-part series related to his work on developing balloons for Venus. His first post covered the developmental history of balloons while his second dove into the fundamental reasons…
Riddle me this: why does a gas deviate from ideal behavior?
Years ago, during on-campus interview season at college, a friend of mine majoring in electrical engineering told of how difficult one of his interviews was. “The interviewer asked me how an oscilloscope worked, and I carefully explained how to plug in the different wires and then how to adjust the knobs and so on. He…
Why Do Balloons Float?
An experimental balloon takes its inaugural flight in August 2020. This particular balloon can change altitude by shortening or lengthening a cord attached the top and bottom of the balloon. Shortening the cord compresses the balloon which makes it descend while lengthening the cord expands the balloon allowing it to ascend. Photo courtesy of Thin…
How to conduct powerful science? Check your ego at the door.
Observe nature, take measurements, and then propose as many hypotheses as you possibly can that are consistent with the data. In this way, you shift the focus from a negative conflict between scientists, each embracing their own individual hypothesis, to a positive, exciting, and team-based conflict between ideas in which technical debate among those with…
Carrying the Dreams of the Montgolfier Brothers to Other Worlds
Balloons – Early Thermodynamics Machines A team of JPL engineers tests whether a large balloon can measure earthquakes from the air. The team proposes to measure “Venus-quakes” from the upper atmosphere of Venus, using an armada of balloons. The author is on the left holding a fan to inflate the solar balloon. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech…
Electric Cars – Is “zero emissions” a valid claim?
I just read an article about an electric vehicle having zero CO2 emissions and thought it’d be an opportune moment to emphasize the value of thermodynamics in critically assessing such claims. Let’s walk through how this is done, starting first with a recap of the foundational mass & energy conservation laws. The conservation laws for…
Happy birthday, Henrietta Leavitt!
You’ve likely heard of the Big Bang theory and the name of Edwin Hubble associated with it. But a person you may not have heard of is Henrietta Leavitt. Leavitt played a critical role in enabling Hubble’s accomplishment. Seeing as today’s her birthday, let’s celebrate her, her achievement, and her impact on astronomy and cosmology.…
My new book “Block by Block” now available
More information available here. Or buy now from Oxford University Press or Amazon!
The 170th Anniversary of the 1st Law of Thermodynamics — A Tribute to Rudolf Clausius
Upon publishing my book, Block by Block – The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics, Oxford University Press kindly invited me to write a post related to my book for their academic blog. I gladly accepted and chose as my topic the creation of the 1st Law of Thermodynamics by Rudolf Clausius’ work of 1850.…
Here’s Why I Wrote “Block by Block” (video)
I’m very excited to share in the below video why I wrote Block by Block – The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics. As you’ll see, I clarify my motivation and also the book’s structure. It’s a readable account of both the history and science of thermodynamics. Enjoy!
About Me
Hi! I’m Bob Hanlon. After earning my my Sc.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and enjoying a long career in both industry and academia, I’ve returned to school, my own self-guided school, seeking to better understand the world of thermodynamics. Please join me on my journey.
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Identifying the Micro behind the Macro 
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