Methods of Thermodynamics

By Howard Reiss

Book Overview

Since there is no shortage of excellent general books on elementary thermodynamics, this book takes a different approach, focusing attention on the problem areas of understanding of concept and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486694453
• ISBN13: 9780486694450
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Detailed Treatment at an Intermediate Level

This is an excellent book for a student of thermodynamics to read after having digested the contents of several more elementary works. It revolves around the careful use of thermodynamic potentials with Chapter 8 being the key chapter. The earlier chapters build to this chapter, and the later ones resolve from it. The focus is purely on equilibrium thermodynamics and the approach is somewhat unorthodox as the author makes heavy use of the concept of constraint in thermodynamical systems. Indeed this concept is introduced and Chapter 1 and slowly developed until Chapter 8 where its connection to thermodynamic potentials is fully elucidated. Chapter 2 reviews some of the key mathematical machinery from multivariable calculus that plays a central role in all thermodynamic derivations. Chapter 3 covers the first law. Chapter 4 covers the second law. Chapter 5 is on ideal substances and the definition and treatment of ideal solutions is the clearest I've read anywhere. Chapters 7 and 8 form the center of this book, and both are dedicated to features of equilibrium. During Chapter 8 the author makes it clear that part of his motivation for writing this book was the slipshod treatment and use of thermodynamic potentials he has seen by his peers both in textbooks and in research journals. Needless to say, his treatment is rather careful although ultimately still not rigorous. The rest of the book is dedicated to examples of the "proper" use of thermodynamic potentials when applied to a variety of situations commonly encountered in thermodynamics, and it is in these chapters that the real payoff of studying this book is realized. Situations treated include phase equilibria, osmosis, surface effects, gravitational and centrifugal fields, elastic systems, and stability of equilibria. I found the chapter on surface effects particularly valuable as this is an important subject which is seldom or poorly treated in other works. Many of the other topics here are very standard, but the fresh perspective and consistent approach are appealing. The book ends with a chapter on third law. The author takes a very pure macroscopic approach to thermodynamics, and references to the microscopic are few and far between. I like that in a thermodynamics book. Furthermore the exposition is of high quality throughout. I had only a few misgivings about this book. The first is that the typeface used is quite small throughout. I'd guess 8 point. The second is that for such a careful treatment the author occasionally makes comments that seem poorly thought out such as a comment about friction made on page 10. I also found it odd that in spite of the author stating that he was writing a book on thermodynamics that was chemistry oriented, there are very few examples from chemistry. Finally, there are no exercises. To finish, I'd like to quote from the preface of this book a paragraph the echoes my own experiences with this subject: "A first glance at thermodynamics leads to

A great read !

This book is great. It did improve my overall understanding of thermodynamics. In fact, it goes really in details and made me question the subtle things that I did in my thermodynamics course. The mathematical proves are detailed and clear and do not require any advanced mathematics. In addition, there is a math chapter in the beginning of the book that covers the * non regular* math that the author will use. But, to be honest, the math chapter is not very straight forward, at least not for me. It did make me read from a lot of resources to understand what is going on. However, I can not admit but its use, I learned some mathematics and revised a lot of old math to understand that chapter. This book is not a very easy read, so be prepared for a lot of hard work ! However, it is REALLY worth it.

The best advanced introduction to the subject

For someone who really wants to understand classical thermodynamics, this book by Howard Reiss can't be beat. Reiss faces the most difficult questions in the subject head on and answers them with thoughtful clarity.He avoids the common errors that almost all texts repeat in their treatments of entropy and covers both the Kelvin/Clausius and the Caratheodory versions of the subject.He covers thermodynamic potentials in a very consistent manner that makes them much more understandable.This is the text I always come back to when I need to review a topic or sharpen my thinking in this area.