Ask HN: Introduction to thermodynamics for non-physicists?

1 point·nanna··3 comments

Hi all, can anyone recommend an introduction to thermodynamics aimed at non-physicists? I'm an academic so I'm not really after trivial pop, but something that deals with the concepts at stake (energy, work, conservation, entropy, Maxwell demon, etc etc), their history, but from the ground up. I also can't stand overly-excitable YouTubers, so ideally not that either.

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It is not clear what your requirement is: actual understanding of thermodynamics (nobody does, just learn the equations); or the History of thermodynamics. For the former, some scientific/math literacy is required. Eg: https://imechanica.org/files/An%20introduction%20to%20thermo... For the history I have no clue: I am a pragmatic scientist and learn the current functioning models. (till they break).

Could you explain what you mean by no one understanding thermodynamics? As in Maxwell, Einstein, Wiener, and so on - none of them understood thermodynamics? I think at stake here is what you mean by understanding.

And what is a 'pragmatic scientist'? Someone who doesn't take interest in the reasons things are as they are, but only operatively that they are as they are?

Sorry for that late reply. My Thermodynamics Prof, Max McGlashan (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-professor... this to me personally. It has been many decades since I used thermodynamics in any no-trivial way, so I am no expert: but in chemistry (not physics) you just learn the rules to get results. That is the pragmatism: I was never researching thermodynamics, but using the theories to advance Chemistry.

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