Lets first break the word itself.

Thermo+dynamics, Thermo is a greek derived word for heat and dynamics is the study of
motion.

So literally it means motion of heat.

Heat is used to refer Energy. Since the most common and easy way to understand Energy is
in form of heat.

So why is it dynamics?..Well, as in Classical mechanics when we study the motion of any

macroscopic object we consider things like. Displacement, Velocity, Accelaration and how
these things are inter-related. Considering these factors we make a full image of the moving
object.

In the same way when we are studying Thermodynamics we are concerned with flow of
heat, and the factors governing flow of heat are: Pressure, Temperature, Volume. How these
thing together create a picture of flow of Energy in a given observation.

This is just a General definition, core of Thermodynamics lies in its 3 Laws.

1. 0th Law- If temperature of A is equal to B and B is equal to C then temperature

of A is equal to C.
2. 1st Law- Total Energy of system is given by: [math]E = U + P \Delta{V}
[/math]where [math]E[/math] is total energy of system [math]U[/math] is internal
Energy of system and [math]P \Delta{V} [/math] is the work done
([math]P[/math] and [math]\Delta{V} [/math] are Pressure applied and change of
Volume respectively), This law is an extension of Law of Conservation of Energy.
3. 2nd Law- Entropy (Randomness of distribution of Energy) always increases or
remains constant, another statement for this law is the flow of heat is always from
Higher energy to lower Energy with no process being 100% efficient i.e. Input is
never =Output, Input is always >Output.
Lastly, Thermodynamics is only applicable on Macroscopic world and fails in Microscopic.
For this we now have statistical physics.

It was actually the time of Lord Kelvin (Victorian Era) when thermodynamics have
importance and fascination what we today have for Quantum Mechanics and Relativity.

Hope it helps..Thanks!
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Eric Bittner
, Professor of Chemical Physics
Answered November 1, 2017 · Author has 1.4K answers and 1.9M answer views

Thermodynamics is the study of the transformation of energy from one form to another. It is
generally based upon macroscopic quantities such as the volume, pressure, and
temperature of a given system.

Thermodynamics is a beautiful and immensely powerful theoretical approach to understand

and quantify transformations of energy and matter. It is a core subject in Physical Chemistry
and a solid understanding of thermodynamics is pretty much essential for any branch of
physics, physical chemistry, materials science, mechanical engineering, and chemical
engineering.

It is not a subject that you can simply learn once and immediately master (at least not for
me!). I’ve taught graduate and undergraduate thermo for 20 yrs and I’m still surprised by its
subtilties.

There are three Laws of Thermodynamics.

The First Law is simply a statement of accounting, that the total energy of the system +
environment is conserved. More precisely, it says that in order to change the total energy of
a system you either need to do work, add heat, or change the size of the system:

[math]dU = \delta q + \delta w = TdS - pdV + \mu dN[/math]

Note that the + before [math]\delta w[/math] denotes work done ON the system as

opposed to work done BY the system. Different texts and authors use + or - and you need
to be aware of this…especially since professors like me tend to slip this issue into exam
questions. The fall back is to always think about the answer you just computed!

The Second Law concerns a quantity called Entropy. This is probably the most confusing

concept in thermodynamics. Broadly, it states that the total entropy can never decrease over
time for an isolated system. Mathematically, we can see from the 1st law, that for an isolated
system at constant volume, we have that [math]\delta q = TdS[/math], i.e that [math]S =
\delta q/T[/math] . That is to say that the change in entropy (at const. V) for a reversible
process is the heat added to the system divided by the temperature at which it is added.
This can be generalized to irreversible processes (Clausius inequality) which is to say that for
a cyclic process

[math]\oint \frac{dq}{T} \le 0[/math]

The equality holds for a reversible process since S is a state function and changes
in S depend upon only the initial and final state and not the pathway. Note that the Second
Law also defines (precisely) the temperature of a system as

[math]T = \left(\frac{\partial U}{\partial S}\right)_{V,N}[/math]

The Third Law is often stated that for a system at equilibrium the entropy of a perfect
crystal at absolute zero of temperature is exactly zero. This statement (like the Second Law)
has been revised and revisited over the past 150 yrs.
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