Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is the branch of Physical Chemistry that studies heat and energy in several forms.

Thermodynamics is a phenomenological description of the equilibrium properties of Macroscopic Systems.

We tentatively asked, is heat an energy? We decided that if the answer was yes, the units would come out to Newton-meters. The textbook said “Joules” and we quickly remembered that 1 Joule = 1 Newton-meter.)

Thermodynamics is an example of what happens when people who understand a difficult subject decide they want to make it even harder.

For a conservative system, energy is converted back and forth between Kinetic Energy and Potential Energy but never lost to a non-conservative force such as Friction.