The algorithm of thermodynamics

I have taught this course four times before, but have never devoted lectures on basic thermodynamics. It is a subject I’m not good at, but I have used it often in research, in a loose way. One can ride a bicycle without knowing Newton’s laws, even though bicycle-riding is governed by Newton’s law. If thermodynamics gives me so much trouble, perhaps it also gives my students a lot of trouble. I have taken lectures from many teachers on the subject. None have really made me feel comfortable with it. Now I’m trying to teach you. I hope that I can help you become comfortable with the subject. Maybe you already are. Maybe you never will. I have no evidence that I can be more effective than these other teachers, but I have the enthusiasm of an amateur.

To understand thermodynamics, one has to understand its algorithm, a large sample of phenomena, as well as techniques of computation and measurement. This lecture focuses on the algorithm.

When my older son was very young, perhaps three or four, I began to tell him about electrons and protons and molecules. I’d like to see my son grow up comfortable about things that he had no direct evidence of. I grew up during the Cultural Revolution in China, and knew how effective propaganda could be. Radical ideas seem to become reasonable after one says them a lot of times. This method of persuasion can be used to a good end. When I was a child, people kept telling me that the earth circles around the sun, and I became comfortable with the idea, despite that daily evidence seemed to suggest the opposite. So a bombardment of ideas can be effective, and even noble if the ideas are true. If I keep telling my son about molecules, he might grow up as familiar with molecules as with his younger brother. That will prepare him for the Age of Molecules.