Abstract
In cold bodies the atoms find potential energy barriers difficult to surmount, because the thermal motion is weak. That is the reason for liquefaction and solidification when the intermolecular van der Waals forces overwhelm the free-flying gas atoms. If the temperature tends to zero, no barriers - however small - can be overcome so that a body must assume the state of lowest energy. No other state can be realized and therefore the entropy must be zero. That is what the third law of thermodynamics says.
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© 2007 Springer
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Müller, I. (2007). Third Law of Thermodynamics. In: A History of Thermodynamics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-46227-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-46227-9_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-46226-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46227-9
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