Abstract
The systems which are the subject matter of statistical physics involve N particles, atoms or molecules, with N ≃ 1023. Studying such systems using the laws of mechanics (either classical or quantum mechanical) is an impossible task since, for instance, to determine the mechanical state of a classical system at any instant of time it is necessary to solve Hamilton’s equations and to know the initial mechanical state of the system. As will be seen later on, there exist even more profound reasons to abandon the mechanical study of systems composed of a very large number of particles or macroscopic systems. An alternative description of such systems is provided by thermodynamics, a theory which is briefly described in this chapter. For a more detailed study of this theory the readers may consult the texts included in the Further Reading.
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Further Reading
M.W. Zemansky, R.H. Dittman, Heat and Thermodynamics, 7th edn. (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1996). A first introduction to thermodynamics.
A. Munster, Classical Thermodynamics (Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1970). A classic summary of the principles of thermodynamics.
R.T. De Hoff, Thermodynamics (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1993). An introduction with a special emphasis on mixtures.
H. B. Callen, Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatistics, 2nd edn. (Wiley, New York, 1985). Provides a good discussion of the foundations of both phenomenological and statistical thermodynamics.
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Baus, M., Tejero, C.F. (2021). Thermodynamics. In: Equilibrium Statistical Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75432-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75432-7_2
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