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A course in thermodynamics /
Reviewer: German Gomez from Medellin, Colombia I am a professor at Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Medellin. My teaching activities are related with thermodynamics and transport phenomena. I know the book by Kestin on thermodynamics (A course in Thermodynamics, revised printing, Volume 1, 1979,...
| Clasificación: | QC311 K4.2 1979 |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Libro |
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Washington :
Hemisphere Pub. Corp.,
c1979.
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| Edición: | Rev. printing. |
| Colección: | Series in thermal and fluids engineering
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| Temas: |
| Sumario: | Reviewer: German Gomez from Medellin, Colombia I am a professor at Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Medellin. My teaching activities are related with thermodynamics and transport phenomena. I know the book by Kestin on thermodynamics (A course in Thermodynamics, revised printing, Volume 1, 1979, Washington: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation; I could not get the volumen 2); this is one I use preferably in my teaching of the subject, together with the book by K. Denbigh, the book by H. Callen, and, lately, the book by Kondepudi & Prigogine. In my opinion, one of the features of the book is the abundance of details used by the author to explain the different concepts. Those details may seem sometimes very overwhelming, but if one insists in going through them, it would pay later in the form of a better comprehension of the items. According to my own conception of teaching of a science like thermodynamics, Kestin's book is the most appropriate to present the different aspects of the subject. In which senses is this book different from others on the same subject? I will refer briefly to some of them. Chapter 2: Temperature and Temperature Scales. The treatment of this theme remembered me the book by Zemansky, a true classic. Here Kestin is excellent. Chapter 4: Work. This is the only book I know that makes a comparison between the concept of work in mechanics and the definition of work in thermodynamics. As a professor, I witness the real confusion in students when they go from physics courses to thermodynamics courses; they often think that there is a mistake somewhere. Chapter 6: Introduction to the Analysis of Continuous Systems and the First Law of Thermodynamics for Open Systems. This is another proof of Kestin's honesty and perfectionism: most of the books on thermodynamics, at undergraduate level, extend the application of the laws of thermodynamics to open systems without any reference to the required assumptions to do that. They forgive that properties like temperature, energy and entropy have sense only in systems at equilibrium, and open systmes are not. Kestin, as far as he is concerned, introduces the principle of local state, only an approximation that allowed the development of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes since the beginning of the 20th century. I think details like this must be known by students and people interested in the subject. In an interesting idea, the author introduces two chapters -7 and 8- to "provide the necessary descriptive background for a physical understanding of a variety of systems"; doing so, there is an interruption in the exposition of the zero (ch.2), first (ch.5), and second (ch.9) laws of thermodynamics, but it can be tolerated in view of the goal of the author. Other novelties include: there is a clear distiction between quasistatic reversible and quasistatic irreversible processes, something you do not find in some books; there is also a distinction between classical thermodynamics(the real subject of the book) and statistical mechanics (statistical thermodynamics); some statistical concepts are used but in an appropriate way: when they contribute to a deeper understanding of the subject. Finally, I do not hesitate to recommend this book, mainly to teachers of the subject. Sincerely, German R. Gomez Apartado aereo: 51482 Medellin, Colombia South America |
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| Descripción Física: | 2 v. : ill. ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliografía: | Includes bibliographical references and indexes. |
| ISBN: | 0891166408 0891166416 |