Learning temperature, pressure, and chemical potential

I have updated sections of my notes on thermodynamics.  A few thoughts on learning are collected here.  Of our world the following facts are known:

• An isolated system has a set of quantum states, or microstates, for want of a single word.
• The isolated system flips rapidly and ceaselessly from one microstate to another.
• After a system is isolated for a long time, all microstates of the system are equally probable (the fundamental postulate).

For an account of these facts, see notes on Isolated Systems (node/290).

A particular way to exploit these facts is as follows. A subset of microstates of an isolated system is called a macrostate. For a system isolated for a long time, of a given family of macrostates of the system, the most probable macrostate has the largest number of microstates.

The logarithm of the number of microstates is called the entropy.

Thermodynamics is then formulated by constructing isolated systems and macrostates. One object of thermodynamics is to determine entropies for various macrostates, by a combination of experiments and calculations.  Another object of thermodynamics is to pick the macrostate with the largest entropy.

We have seen three basic examples:

• By allowing two systems to exchange energy, we introduce temperature (node/291).
• By allowing two systems to exchange energy and space, we introduce pressure (node/885).
• By allowing two systems to exchange energy and matter, we introduce chemical potential (node/911).

The mathematics is simple enough.  For a system with variable energy, volume, and the number of a species of molecules, the entropy of the system is a function of the three variables.  When two systems are in contact, the composite of the two systems is an isolated system.  The entropy of the composite is the sum of the entropy of one system and the entropy of the other system.

The problem maximization leads to the partial derivatives of the entropy with respect to energy, volume, and number of molecules.  We then name the partial derivatives using combinations of temperature, pressure, and chemical potential.  Each of the three quantities­­­, however, poses distinct difficulties to learn.

Temperature is familiar to everyone from daily experience. The familiarity, however, seems to breed not only contempt but also misunderstanding. The essential steps in learning are to strip away extraneous ideas associated with the daily use of temperature, and to link temperature to the derivative of entropy with respect to energy. After these steps, the familiarity with temperature aids, rather than retards, the understanding of thermodynamics.

Pressure is familiar to us mechanicians. The ideas of force and work are so embedded that any other way to introduce pressure seems to be unnatural. Yet this familiarity sheds no insight into phenomena such as osmosis and ideal gas. To equilibrate two systems exchanging volume, what matters is the derivative of entropy with respect to volume. However, instead of giving this derivative a distinct name, we call this derivative the ratio of the pressure over temperature.

Chemical potential is introduced within thermodynamics, so that we do not need to fight against familiarity. The difficulty in leaning chemical potential is to get to be familiar with it. How is chemical potential determined in experiments? What does chemical potential do? The definition of chemical potential has the same issue as that of pressure. To equilibrate two systems exchanging molecules, what matters is the derivative of entropy with respect to the number of molecules. However, instead of giving this derivative a distinct name, we call this derivative the ratio of the chemical potential over temperature.

Some comfort is gained when we examine energy as a function of entropy, volume and the number of molecules. But this comfort comes at a cost: it removes us one more step away from the fundamental postulate.  We twist our presentation to conform to Gibbs’s preference.