Seeking to explain thermodynamics based on moving and interacting atoms

Introduction

At the end of a 2017 thermodynamics presentation by Dr. Raffaele Pisano, a grey-haired gentleman approached the microphone and said:

I have… a degree in physics. All of my friends went to engineering schools. We all agreed on one thing. And that is that thermodynamics was a black art. It was extremely difficult, abstract, and we swore over many glasses of beer we would never set foot in a room where the word thermodynamics was uttered again – (Pisano 2017).

Upon graduation, I could have sworn the same. As a chemical engineering student, I took both undergraduate and graduate thermodynamics, did well, but never truly understood it. The phrase “black art” is apt.

Every university student who studies thermodynamics is capable of graduating with a solid command of the subject. Why then, some 170 years after thermodynamics was founded, doesn’t this happen? Simply put, because we teachers don’t understand it well enough. We are fluent in the equations and the problem-solving, but not in their physical meaning as rooted in atomic motion and interaction. No textbook I am aware of provides those explanations. Students therefore experience thermodynamics as a black box—intimidating, abstract, and underused. That limits both their potential and society’s capacity to solve problems.

This online book, together with my earlier volume Block by Block: The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics, is meant to equip professors to build syllabi based on moving and interacting atoms. We know vastly more about atoms than scholars did in the 1800s. It is time to use that knowledge. Begin with atomic theory as the foundation; then layer on thermodynamic terms, concepts, equations, and phenomena, explicitly tying each to its microscopic base.

The opportunity is clear: build an atoms-based curriculum that promotes deeper learning, genuine understanding, and confident application. The challenge is equally clear: synthesize what exists in books and journals, draw on expert insight, and create what is missing. If students are to thrive, we must act. It is time to begin

Building thermodynamics on the atomic theory of matter – My Proposal

My guiding light is Richard Feynman:

All things are made of atoms – little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied – Richard Feynman [1]

The on-line book that I am creating on this website is meant to provide content to those who want a better understanding of thermodynamics and additionally to those in the academic world seeking to create an improved syllabus. I will publish as I create and modify along the way as needed. If this journey interests you, I invite you to join me and, more importantly, help me.

So what am I proposing? That there is a more effective approach to teaching thermodynamics, one embracing the seeming simplicity of Feynman’s moving and interacting atoms, which can explain much on its own, enhanced by content on the behavior of orbital electrons and photons, necessarily including some level of quantum mechanics.  The relevant content can be drawn from physics and physical chemistry curricula and be placed into four specific sections as shown here.

Section 1 – Atoms and forces

Section 2 – The movement of atoms

Section 3 – Conservation of mass and energy

Section 4 – Law of large numbers

My hypothesis is that adding these four sections onto the front end of thermodynamics curriculum and then showing exactly how these micro-concepts are connected with the subsequent macro-concepts comprising the classical thermodynamics sections will significantly improve the educational experience for the students, leaving them well positioned to proactively use this extremely valuable science to solve the real-world problems they’re working on.  Naturally, this hypothesis would need to be tested.  But first things first: the syllabus needs to be developed.  Some of the necessary material is already available in physics, physical chemistry, engineering textbooks and needs to be curated and meshed together into a seamless whole.  Some of the material, however, will need to be developed by a team of engaged scientists.  I believe it’s worth the effort.  This is the task ahead.

What This Book Is — and Is Not

This book is:

This book is not:

There are deep questions in thermodynamics—about entropy, irreversibility, quantum behavior, and the ultimate origins of macroscopic laws—that are still being explored. Some of these questions are touched on here; some are not (yet) resolved.

The explanations in this book are sufficient for understanding and using thermodynamics effectively. Where deeper theory is required, the boundaries are clearly marked rather than glossed over.

References

[1] Feynman, Richard Phillips, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew L. Sands, and Richard Phillips Feynman. 1989. The Feynman Lectures on Physics.  Volume I.  Mainly Mechanics, Radiation, and Heat. Vol. 1. The Feynman Lectures on Physics 1. Redwood City, Calif.: Addison-Wesley, p. 1-2.

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