I was reading a text on semiconductor physics where I came across a description of 'steady state' and 'equilibrium'.
It said 'steady state' means value of state variables are independent of time.
And that when a system is in 'equilibrium', it means state variables must not change with time; this time being relatively long as compared to the time of interest.
It said the difference between equilibrium and steady state is that 'dissipation can occur in steady state, such as generation of heat in resistor'. Now wouldn't that mean temperature of that resistor rise and thus steady state is lost since temperature has risen?
This distinction of dissipation is not clear to me, even though I'm willing to put a cooling pad over the resistor to keep its temperature stable
It said 'steady state' means value of state variables are independent of time.
And that when a system is in 'equilibrium', it means state variables must not change with time; this time being relatively long as compared to the time of interest.
It said the difference between equilibrium and steady state is that 'dissipation can occur in steady state, such as generation of heat in resistor'. Now wouldn't that mean temperature of that resistor rise and thus steady state is lost since temperature has risen?
This distinction of dissipation is not clear to me, even though I'm willing to put a cooling pad over the resistor to keep its temperature stable