Statistical mechanics provides the framework for deriving macroscopic thermodynamic properties from the microscopic characteristics of matter. Central to this discipline is the concept of entropy, ...

Though a cornerstone of thermodynamics, entropy remains one of the most vexing concepts to teach budding physicists in the classroom. Physics teachers designed a hand-held model to demonstrate the ...

FOR THOSE READERS who like short book reviews, let me assist you. "Four Laws That Drive the Universe," by Peter Atkins is an outstanding introduction to thermodynamics. This brief book converts ...

Entropy is surely one of the most intriguing and misunderstood concepts in all of physics. The entropy of the universe must always increase – so says the second law of thermodynamics. It’s a law that ...

A graduate course in classical and statistical thermodynamics. The following topics in classical thermodynamics will be covered: The laws of thermodynamics; conditions for equilibrium Solutions Excess ...

If someone asked you “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would be most ...

The second law of thermodynamics is one of those puzzling laws of nature that simply emerges from the fundamental rules. It says that entropy, a measure of disorder in the Universe, must always ...

Nernst's theorem—a general experimental observation presented in 1905 that entropy exchanges tend to zero when the temperature tends to zero—has been directly linked to the second principle of ...

Benjamin Franklin famously said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” but anyone who’s ever taken an introductory Physics class knows that there’s something more ...

As physicists extend the 19th-century laws of thermodynamics to the quantum realm, they’re rewriting the relationships among energy, entropy and information. In his 1824 book, Reflections on the ...