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Temperature, entropy, and kinetic theory

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Abstract

The relation between the concepts of temperature and entropy and the kinetic theory of gases is discussed, with particular attention to the aspects which are frequently treated as obvious or not even mentioned. In order to show that the usual thermodynamic relations are by no means obvious and may be contradictory, the model of a discrete velocity gas is used. It is also shown that the usual relation between the entropy rate and the heat supplied to a gas is not valid (even close to equilibrium) unless the theory is Galilei invariant (which is obviously not the case for a discrete velocity gas) and must be replaced by another one that eliminates all the paradoxical aspects of the matter.

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Cercignani, C. Temperature, entropy, and kinetic theory. J Stat Phys 87, 1097–1109 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02181273

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02181273

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