PHYS 212 Study Guide for Unit I (Thermodynamics)
The purpose of the study guide is to point out the most important terms, concepts, and
principles.
It is not an all inclusive panacea. The study guide is not a replacement for your
lecture note and/or you text book. Please review you notes and at least the end of the
chapter summaries. You should also review sample problems done in the lecture as well as
in the book You should also review your homework and recommended problems. The course
emphasizes problem solving.
Chapter 18 : Temperature, Heat, the 0th
and 1st law of Thermodynamics, Thermal Expansion, and Means of Heat Transfer
Here are websites you may visit
Be able to:
- Define temperature
and heat clearly in terms of random molecular (atomic} motion.
- Convert Fahrenheit
form to Celsius and vice versa temperature scale readings.
- Convert oF
and oC to K and vice versa
- Convert calories to
Joules and vice versa
- State the 0th
Law of Thermodynamics.
- Understand the
relationship between thermal equilibrium and temperature
- Solve problems
related to calorimetry using the fact that heat lost by the hot object is gained by the
cold object. .
- State the First Law
of Thermodynamics in words and mathematically.
- State how the 1st
law of thermodynamics differs from the low of conservation of energy.
- State the
thermodynamic related contributions of Count Rumford and James Joule
- Define the terms:
calorie, specific heat, molar specific heat,latent heat of fusion
- State the three means
of heat transfer and explain how they are incorporated in the design of a thermos bottle.
- Explain why sea
breezes blow from sea to land during a hot summer day and from land to sea in a cool
night. Extend your reasoning to monsoon rains and mountain and valley breezes.
- Explain how some
devices such as thermometers; thermostats, etc. utilize thermal expansion.
- Be able to define
absolute zero
- Calculate length,
area, and volume expansion of solids.
- Calculate the volume
expansion of fluids
- State some good
applications and some bad consequences of thermal expansion.
- Water expands as it
freezes what are some bad and good consequences of this phenomenon,
- List the means of
heat transfer
- Explain how a thermos
bottle works
- Explain why the
breeze is from sea to land during a hot summer day and land to sea at night
Chapter 19 : Kinetic Theory of Gases
Be able to:
- Define or express
Avogadro's Number, The ideal gas constant, Boltzman Constant
- Distinguish between a
mole and a molecule
- Use the 1st
Law in PV diagrams
- Define the
processes:Quasi static, isothermal , isochoric or isvolumetric, isobaric, adiabatic, cyclic
- Calculate work done
by an ideal gas undergoing an isothermal , isobaric and /or adiabatic process
- Calculate the rms
speed of molecules given the absolute temperature.
- State the difference
between an ideal and real gas molecules.
- Be able to obtain
Boyle's Law and Charles' law as special cases of the ideal gas law (PV = nRT)
- State the
equipartition of energy theorem and use it to derive expressions for the molar specific
heats of monatomic, diatomic and polyatomic gases
- Be able to derive and
state the
Dulog-Petit
rule and use it to calculate the specific heat (molar and mass) of
some metals such as Cu, Al, Pb, Fe, etc. at room temperature
- Visit and listen to this mini lecture on
Equipartition of energy theorem
Chapter 20: Heat Engines, Entropy and
the 2nd Law of
Thermodynamics.
Be able to:
- Define and calculate
entropy for a variety of thermodynamic processes.
- State the second law
of thermodynamics in terms of entropy, and in terms of Carnot efficiency
- State the
implications of the 2nd Law of thermodynamics to machines and living organisms
as they age.
- Calculate the Carnot
efficiency for heat engines
- Calculate the
coefficient of performance of an ideal refrigerators
- Calculate the change
in entropy of a system.
- Express entropy in a
microscopic scale.
Here is large list of thermodynamic related web Sites