Treatise on Thermodynamics

By Alexander Ogg and Max Planck

Book Overview

Written by the founder of quantum theory, a Nobel Prize winner, this classic volume is still recognized as among the best introductions to thermodynamics. It is a model of conciseness and logic, ideally suited to the needs of both students and research workers in physics and chemistry. Based on Planck's original papers, the book offers a uniform point of view for the entire field. Rejecting the earlier approaches of Helmholtz and Maxwell, Planck makes no assumptions regarding the nature of heat, but begins with only a few empirical facts from which he deduces new physical and chemical laws. He considers fundamental facts and definitions (temperature, molecular weight, quantity of heat), the first and second fundamental principles of thermodynamics (applications to homogeneous and non-homogeneous systems, proof, general deductions), and applications to special states of equilibrium (homogeneous systems, systems in various states of aggregation, system of any number of independent constituents, gaseous systems, dilute solutions, absolute value of the entropy, Nernst's theorem). Throughout the book numerous examples are worked.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 048666371X
• ISBN13: 9780486663715
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The great classic of macroscopic thermodynamics

Seeing this book still in print makes me think that not all is lost. For decades everyone looked for Planck's treatise in order to give unity to his or her collection of facts concerning heat, as well as depth to the whole thing. The careful and elegant exposition still satisfies these needs, though the main trends have changed. The purity of the macroscopic approach championed by Planck (in fact a competition against Boltzmann) may seem now an exageration. You will not find interpretations in terms of molecules, for instance. On the other hand, the charm of the purely macroscopic approach is undeniable. After the introductory chapters the reader will notice an emphasis towards chemical equilibrium. This is, in fact, common to almost all thermodynamics texts of that time (Sommerfeld's , for instance) and is due to the fact that one of the main scientific efforts of that time was to try to synthesize ammonia, badly needed for agriculture and explosives (wars were much mo! re frequent then). The problem was eventually solved, for gaseous reagents, by Planck's students Guldberg and Waage and, especially, by Nernst, with the discovery of the third law of thermodynamics. This, by the way, receives a very detailed and interesting treatment in the last chapter, named The Absolute Value of Entropy. This alone would be worth the reading.