Abstract
We will take for granted geometry and kinematics. We will borrow from these sciences any results that we need.
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Notes
- 1.
In order to give examples we are, of course, obliged to anticipate, since no other magnitude representing a physical property has been defined in the foregoing.
- 2.
It should be noted that this law is only exact in so far as the system to which it applies is isolated. A metallic bar with one end immersed in steam and the other in melting ice is in equilibrium when a constant heat flux is established. However, the various points of this bar are not equally warm. But this bar does not constitute an isolated system. If it were to be incorporated in an isolated system, that would contain, at the same time, the boiling water and the melting ice which are not in equilibrium. An analogous observation is applicable to the state of equilibrium achieved by a thermo-electric chain when constancy is established, both for the heat flux and the electric flux.
- 3.
These features are perceived by us in more or less gross experience, such as, for example, by allowing the direct use of our senses. Then, by way of hypotheses, we have accepted that the system T possesses them either rigorously or with an approximation superior to our first observations.
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Needham, P. (2011). Preliminary Definitions. In: Needham, P. (eds) Commentary on the Principles of Thermodynamics by Pierre Duhem. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 277. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0311-7_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0311-7_3
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