There are, perhaps, Things that we construction workers were Not Meant To Know. If so, then I have been dabbling in that which will surely destroy my sanity...
I've been wading through Introduction to Metallurgical Thermodynamics by David R. Gaskell, and I'm having some trouble with the big words...
I can follow the math so far, but the definitions are lacking. That is - the definitions are only presented as formulas. "Entropy" is defined as "summation from zero to kelvin temp of all (Heat Capactity times the derivitive of the natural log of the kelvin temperature)."
He uses the symbols, of course, but I still don't know what I'm reading about. I have in front of me the tools to calculate the Gibbs Free Energy and the enthalpy and such - but I've no clue what these things are...
Is there an online source that provides, in words, actual definitions for these things?
(And please don't send me to one of those sites that defines The First Law as "you can't get something for nothing." Those really don't help. Once I know the actual definitions - in Enlgihs words - I might find the humor in such statements.
I am especially interested in "enthalpy" and "driving force," as these seem to have some practical application to real world things that I am currently interested in.
(And speaking of real world things, why do so many discussions of thermodagnabbits revolve around imagniary ideal gasses and non-existant perfect adiabatic containers? "If this stuff actually existed, here's how it would behave...") :wacko:
I've been wading through Introduction to Metallurgical Thermodynamics by David R. Gaskell, and I'm having some trouble with the big words...
I can follow the math so far, but the definitions are lacking. That is - the definitions are only presented as formulas. "Entropy" is defined as "summation from zero to kelvin temp of all (Heat Capactity times the derivitive of the natural log of the kelvin temperature)."
He uses the symbols, of course, but I still don't know what I'm reading about. I have in front of me the tools to calculate the Gibbs Free Energy and the enthalpy and such - but I've no clue what these things are...
Is there an online source that provides, in words, actual definitions for these things?
(And please don't send me to one of those sites that defines The First Law as "you can't get something for nothing." Those really don't help. Once I know the actual definitions - in Enlgihs words - I might find the humor in such statements.
I am especially interested in "enthalpy" and "driving force," as these seem to have some practical application to real world things that I am currently interested in.
(And speaking of real world things, why do so many discussions of thermodagnabbits revolve around imagniary ideal gasses and non-existant perfect adiabatic containers? "If this stuff actually existed, here's how it would behave...") :wacko: