UNIT VIII STUDY GUIDE

Thermodynamics

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VIII

Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Describe the system of units for various physical quantities.

2. Illustrate the scientific method within everyday situations.

3. Explain Newton's laws of motion at work in common phenomena.

4. Apply the concept of momentum conservations to daily life.

5. Identify the total mechanical energy conservation.

6. Explain numerous phenomena using fluid mechanics laws.

7. Describe fundamental thermodynamic concepts.

7.1 Recognize the first law of thermodynamics.
7.2 Identify the maximum efficiency of a heat engine.
7.3 Interpret the various thermal processes.

Required Unit Resources

Chapter 15: Thermodynamics

Unit Lesson
The Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics

If there is no heat transfer (adiabatic process) between two systems, they are said to be in thermal equilibrium
so that their temperatures are identical. The adiabatic process is a thermal process with no heat flow. If a third
system is in thermal equilibrium with the two systems simultaneously, they are all in thermal equilibrium with
the same temperature. This is known as the zeroth law of thermodynamics. The temperature is the indicator
of thermal equilibrium, in which any flow of heat is prohibited in the system. Please look at Figure 15.2 under
Section 15.2 of Chapter 15 in the eTextbook (Cutnell et al., 2022). The mercury level is the same in the
thermometer in Systems A and B.

The First Law of Thermodynamics

This law is just the energy conservation law applied to heat, work, and internal energy. The internal energy of
a system changes due to heat (Q) and work (W): U = Q – W. The change in internal energy is equivalent to
the difference between the heat added to the system and the work done by the system (Cutnell et al., 2022).

Change in Internal Energy = Heat – Work

Please note, Q is positive when the system gains heat, and Q is negative when the system loses heat.
Similarly, W is positive when work is done by the system, and W is negative when work is done on the
system.

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Sample Question 1: The internal energy U of a system is 7000 J. The work done W by the
system is given as 8000 J. Determine if the heat is gained or lost to the system.

Solution: Use the formula U = Q – W. W is positive when work is done by the system, so W =
+8000 J. The heat Q = U + W = 7000 + 8000= 15,000 J. It is positive, so the system gains 15,000
J of heat from the surroundings.

Thermal Processes

In general, there are four types of thermal processes when considering the ideal gas: isobaric, isochoric,
isothermal, and adiabatic. The isobaric process is when the pressure of a system is constant. The work done,
in this case, is the product of the pressure and the change in volume. The change in volume is calculated by
the final volume minus the initial volume. The isochoric process is when the volume is constant, so the work
done is none. Consequently, the change in internal energy is the same as the heat. The isothermal process is
when the temperature is constant. Thus, the final internal energy is equal to the initial internal energy. Lastly,
the adiabatic process is when the heat does not transfer to anywhere. The adiabatic expansion or
compression of the ideal gas is related to the ratio of the specific heat capacities at constant pressure and
constant volume.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics

The second law can be stated in various ways. Let’s consider the heat flow statement. It states that heat flows
spontaneously from a substance at a higher temperature to a substance at a lower temperature and does not
flow spontaneously in the reverse direction. In order to understand the meaning of this statement, consider
heat engines. A heat engine has three main components: a hot reservoir, a cold reservoir, and work output.
See Figure 15.13 under Section 15.8 of Chapter 15 in eTextbook (Cutnell et al., 2022) for a graphic depiction
of this concept.

It is impossible to create a perfect engine that uses all of the input heat to produce the work done. Some of
the input heat must flow to the cold reservoir. It is also impossible to create a perfect refrigerator. Without any
work, the heat cannot flow from the cold reservoir to the hot reservoir.

Carnot suggested the condition for the maximum efficiency of a heat engine in a reversible process
(Erlichson, 1999). The reversible process refers to when the final state can be returned to its original state.
The efficiency (e) of a Carnot engine is defined as the ratio of the work (W) done by the engine to the input
heat QH: e = W / QH. W = QH – QC, where Qc is the output heat. That is, e = 1 – Qc / QH = 1 – Tc / TH, where Tc
stands for the temperature of the cold reservoir, and TH stands for the temperature of the hot reservoir. The
unit of temperature must be in Kelvin.

Work Done = Efficiency x Input Heat

Sample Question 2: We are going to use a tropical ocean as a heat engine. The surface
temperature is 300 K, and the underwater temperature is 280 K. Determine the maximum possible
efficiency of this engine.

Solution: Use the formula e = 1 - Tc / TH. Here, Tc is 280 K, and TH is 300 K. The warm water
should be a hot reservoir, and the cool water should be a cold reservoir.

So, e = 1 – 280 / 300 = 1 / 15 ≈ 0.06 = 6%.

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Carnot’s principle or an alternative statement of the second law of thermodynamics
UNIT xstates
STUDY thatGUIDE
no irreversible
engine operating between two reservoirs at constant temperatures can have aTitle
greater efficiency than a
reversible engine operating between the same temperatures (Erlichson, 1999). In addition, all reversible
engines operating between the same temperatures have the same efficiency.

Entropy is introduced to describe the order of a system. The second law of thermodynamics can be stated
using the concept of entropy. The change in entropy (S) is defined as when the heat (Q) flows reversibly at a
constant (T): S = Q / T. In the reversible process, the total entropy of the universe is constant: S = 0. In an
irreversible process, the entropy is always increasing: S > 0. For instance, suppose the total energy q that is
transferred from a hot region in the universe at temperature T1 to a cold region at temperature T2. From the
definition of the entropy, the hot region’s entropy S1 is the total energy q divided by the hot region’s
temperature T1. In the same manner, the cold region’s entropy S2 is the total energy q divided by the cold
region’s temperature T2. In other words, S1 = q / T1 and S2 = q / T2. The change in entropy is obtained by S2
– S1 = q / T2 – q / T1 = q(1 / T2 – 1 / T1). Please note, that T2 is less than T1. That is, 1 / T2 is greater than 1
/ T1. Thus, the change in entropy is positive. Therefore, the total entropy of the universe is increasing.
Furthermore, the entropy is strongly related to the probability. When considering a gas in a box, the
probability that all the gas particles exist in a particular place at the same time is extremely small. That is, it
has a very low entropy state. However, the probability that the distribution of all the particles is random is
much more likely. This illustrates a higher entropy state.

The Third Law of Thermodynamics

The third law states that it is impossible to arrive at the absolute zero temperature (T = 0 K) in any system
where there is no motion and no kinetic energy. The zero Kelvin is the lowest possible temperature in the
universe. This temperature corresponds to -273.15° Celsius or -459.7° Fahrenheit. As the temperature
approaches 0 Kelvin, the entropy becomes constant. The entropy of a pure perfect crystal is zero at zero
Kelvin, which is impossible because the entropy cannot become zero based on the second law of
thermodynamics.

Thermal History of the Universe

In the early universe, photons (radiation) were hot enough to produce matter-antimatter pairs. The two
particles (matter-antimatter pair) can annihilate each other to reproduce a photon. When the temperature was
greater than 1013 K, there were active interactions among photons, protons, anti-protons, neutrons, and anti-
neutrons. When the temperature was less than 109 K, the interactions between photons, electrons, and anti-
electrons were active. Radiation produces matter-antimatter pairs; that is, there were active productions

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between lights and baryons (ordinary matter like neutrons and protons). That is, when
UNIT the temperature
x STUDY GUIDE is
greater than 1013 K, photons can be created by the interaction between protons and anti-protons or neutrons
Title
and anti-neutrons. Also, the interaction between two photons can create a pair of particles of protons and anti-
protons or that of neutrons and anti-neutrons. There are dynamic interactions between lights and baryons
(ordinary matter like neutrons and protons) in the hot universe.

As the universe expanded, the temperature decreased, and soon photons did not have enough energy to
form new matter and antimatter pairs. Most of elementary particles (neutrons and protons) are frozen out at
the time t ~ 10-6 second when the temperature T dropped below 1013 K. Also, electrons freeze out at t ~ 1 sec
when T drops below 109 K. The universe keeps expanding and cooling.

If the number of matter and anti-matter particles had been exactly equal, then complete annihilation of matter
would have occurred and none of us would be here today. Luckily for us, due to symmetry breaking, there
was a slight excess of matter over anti-matter, (1 excess matter particle for every billion matter-antimatter
pairs). Thus, matter particles, neutrons and protons (H nuclei) form by t < 10-6 s and electrons by t = 1 s. We
owe our existence to this symmetry breaking.

Energy density in photons (radiation) is larger than energy in matter before about 3 × 104 years. As the
universe expands, matter energy density overcomes radiation energy density because of different expansion
rate properties between them. Radiation energy density is proportional to the fourth power of the temperature
of the universe while matter energy density is proportional to the third power of the temperature.

As the universe expands, the photon λ stretches, and its energy falls (E ∝ 1 / λ). Matter energy falls because
the separation of matter particles increases. They drop faster in the case of photons, and soon the energy
density in matter exceeds the energy in photons. The universe transits to being matter-dominated and
matter/gas then responds to gravitational forces and forms clumps. These clumps are the seed from which
larger structures such as stars and proto-galaxies will come.

Before recombination, the radiation-dominated universe was opaque because the photons collided frequently
with electrons and sometimes got trapped. Also, electrons and protons existed separately and did not unite as
neutral hydrogen. As the temperature dropped to about 3000 K, it became a proper condition to form a neutral
hydrogen atom out of proton and electron. In addition, photons interacted only rarely with neutral atoms, and
they traveled freely; the universe became transparent. This free streaming of photons can now be observed
as cosmic background radiation (CBR) of 3 K.

In this final unit, we studied the definition of thermodynamic systems and their surroundings with four
thermodynamics laws. We also applied them to the various thermal processes using an ideal gas with specific
heat capacities and examined the concept of entropy in the universe.

References

Cutnell, J. D., Johnson, K. W., Young, D., & Stadler, S. (2022). Physics (12th ed.). Wiley.

Erlichson, H. (1999). Sadi Carnot, ‘founder of the second law of thermodynamics’. European Journal of
Physics, 20(1999), 183–192.
http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~moyer/GEOS24705/Readings/Carnot_article_1998.pdf

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