Kara Sears
The laws of thermodynamics are a set of scientific laws that define a group of physical quantities, such as temperature, energy, and entropy, that characterize thermodynamic systems in thermodynamic equilibrium. The first law of thermodynamics, a version of the law of conservation of energy, was formulated in the 19th century and states that energy must be conserved in any process involving the exchange of heat and work between a system and its surroundings. The second law of thermodynamics, formulated in 1824 by Sadi Carnot, establishes the concept of entropy as a physical property of a thermodynamic system. The third law, or Nernst's theorem, was formulated by Walther Nernst over the period 1906-1912. The zeroth law of thermodynamics, dubbed as such in the 1930s by Ralph Fowler, states that if two bodies are each in thermal equilibrium with a third body, they must also be in equilibrium with each other.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Creator of the first established thermodynamic principle, which became the second law of thermodynamics | Sadi Carnot |
| Year the second law of thermodynamics was formulated | 1824 |
| Founder of the science of thermodynamics | Rudolf Clausius |
| Year the foundation for the second law of thermodynamics was laid | 1850 |
| Year the second law of thermodynamics was published | 1854 |
| Other names for the second law of thermodynamics | Clausius statement, Kelvin statement, Carathéodory's statement |
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What You'll Learn
The first law of thermodynamics
The first explicit statement of the first law of thermodynamics was made by Rudolf Clausius in 1850. However, the law was further developed by scientists such as Germain Hess, Julius Robert von Mayer, and James Prescott Joule in the 1840s. Their work focused on the conservation of energy during chemical transformations and the relationship between heat and work.
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The second law of thermodynamics
The second law may be formulated by observing that the entropy of isolated systems left to spontaneous evolution cannot decrease, as they always tend toward a state of thermodynamic equilibrium where the entropy is highest at the given internal energy. An increase in the combined entropy of system and surroundings accounts for the irreversibility of natural processes, often referred to in the concept of the arrow of time. The second law of thermodynamics allows the definition of the concept of thermodynamic temperature, but this has been formally delegated to the zeroth law of thermodynamics.
The first formulation of the second law, which preceded the proper definition of entropy and was based on caloric theory, is Carnot's theorem, formulated by the French scientist Sadi Carnot in 1824. Carnot's principle was recognized at a time when the caloric theory represented the dominant understanding of the nature of heat, before the recognition of the first law of thermodynamics, and before the mathematical expression of the concept of entropy. In 1850, the German scientist Rudolf Clausius laid the foundation for the second law of thermodynamics by examining the relation between heat transfer and work. His formulation of the second law, which was published in German in 1854, is known as the Clausius statement: "Heat can never pass from a colder to a warmer body without some other change, connected therewith, occurring at the same time."
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The father of thermodynamics
The French physicist Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot is often regarded as the "father of thermodynamics". Carnot's only published work, a short 118-page book titled "Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance" ("Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire and on Machines Fitted to Develop that Power"), was published in 1824. In it, he discussed the relative merits of air and steam as working fluids, various aspects of steam-engine design, and included some ideas for practical improvements. The central part of the book was an abstract treatment of an idealized engine (the Carnot cycle), with which Carnot sought to clarify the fundamental principles that govern all heat engines, independently of the details of their design or operation. This resulted in an idealized thermodynamic system upon which exact calculations could be made, avoiding the complications of contemporary steam engines.
Carnot's work attracted little attention during his lifetime, and he died in relative obscurity at the age of 36 during a cholera epidemic in 1832. However, in 1834, two years after his death, the French engineer Émile Clapeyron published a detailed commentary on Carnot's work, which finally succeeded in drawing attention to it. This commentary attracted the interest of William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and Rudolf Clausius, who used Carnot's ideas to develop an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale and define the concept of entropy, respectively. Clausius also modified Carnot's arguments to make them compatible with the mechanical equivalence of heat, which led him to formulate the second law of thermodynamics.
Carnot is considered the "father of thermodynamics" due to his contributions to the development of this field, including the Carnot heat engine, Carnot theorem, and Carnot efficiency. His concept of the idealized heat engine led to the development of a thermodynamic system that could be quantified, enabling many future discoveries. In 1970, the International Astronomical Union named a lunar crater after him in honour of his contributions.
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The Clausius statement
The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal empirical observation concerning heat and energy interconversions. The law establishes the concept of entropy as a physical property of a thermodynamic system. The second law dictates the direction of processes and can be expressed in many ways, including the Clausius statement.
Rudolf Clausius, a German physicist, laid the foundation for the second law of thermodynamics in 1850 by examining the relation between heat transfer and work. His formulation of the second law, published in German in 1854, is known as the Clausius statement. The statement says that heat can never pass from a colder to a warmer body without some other change occurring simultaneously. This is because heat cannot spontaneously flow from cold regions to hot regions without external work being performed on the system. For example, in a refrigerator, heat is transferred from cold to hot, but only when forced by an external agent, the refrigeration system.
The second law of thermodynamics was first formulated by Sadi Carnot in 1824 in his book Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire. By 1860, the law was formalized by scientists such as Rudolf Clausius and William Thomson.
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The Kelvin statement
The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal empirical observation concerning heat and energy interconversions. It establishes the concept of entropy as a physical property of a thermodynamic system and predicts whether processes are forbidden despite obeying the requirement of energy conservation as expressed in the first law of thermodynamics. The second law allows for the determination of necessary criteria for spontaneous processes. For example, it allows for a cup falling off a table and breaking but denies the reverse process of the broken cup fragments coming back together and jumping back onto the table.
The second law also states that the changes in the entropy of the universe can never be negative. This is related to the concept of the "'arrow of time,'" which suggests that time itself is asymmetric with respect to the order of an isolated system. In other words, as time increases, a system will become more disordered. This is evident in everyday life, such as when an ice cube is left at room temperature and begins to melt, or when a room becomes messy over time.
Lord Kelvin played a significant role in the development of thermodynamics and the understanding of the Earth's age. He hypothesized that the Earth's surface was once extremely hot and was cooling slowly over time. Using thermodynamics, he estimated the Earth's age to be at least twenty million years, which was much less than the actual age due to the unknown factor of radioactivity during his time.
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Frequently asked questions
The first law of thermodynamics is a version of the law of conservation of energy, which states that energy can be transformed from one form to another but cannot be created or destroyed. This law was formally stated by German physicist Rudolf Clausius and Scottish physicist William Thomson around 1860.
The second law of thermodynamics was first formulated by French physicist Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot in 1824. It was further developed by Rudolf Clausius, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), and Constantin Carathéodory.
The first law of thermodynamics states that, when energy passes into or out of a system, the system's internal energy changes in accordance with the law of conservation of energy.
The second law of thermodynamics states that in a natural thermodynamic process, the sum of the entropies of the interacting thermodynamic systems never decreases. It also establishes the concept of entropy as a physical property of a thermodynamic system.
The first law focuses on the conservation of energy in a system, while the second law introduces the concept of entropy and the irreversibility of natural processes. The second law also predicts whether processes are forbidden, even if they obey the energy conservation requirement of the first law.
