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’ fearContinue reading “Goggins, Full Capability, and “Atoms First” Thermodynamics”
Category Archives: Robert Hanlon
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,Continue reading “Thermodynamic “pain point” results – here are your responses”
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. LoschmidtContinue reading “The Road to Entropy – Boltzmann and his probabilistic entropy”
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, andContinue reading “The Road to Entropy – The kinetic theory of gases & heat capacity”
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 meContinue reading “The Road to Entropy – Clausius, Gibbs, and increasing entropy”
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 movingContinue reading “The Road to Entropy – Clausius undaunted”
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.
Identifying the Micro behind the Macro 