Lecture Outline

Chapter 18:
Thermodynamics

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 This lecture will help you understand:

• Thermodynamics
• Absolute Zero
• Internal Energy
• First Law of Thermodynamics
• Adiabatic Processes
• Meteorology and the First Law
• Second Law of Thermodynamics
• Order Tends to Disorder
• Entropy
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 Thermodynamics

• The science of thermodynamics was developed in the

early 19th century.
• Atomic and molecular theory of matter was not
understood then, so early thermodynamics invoked
macroscopic ideas such as mechanical work, pressure,
and temperature.
• The foundation stones of thermodynamics are:
– The conservation of energy and
– The fact that heat flows spontaneously from hot to
cold and not the other way around

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 Absolute Zero

• As the temperature of a gas changes, the volume of a

gas changes.
– At zero degrees with pressure constant, volume
changes by 1/273 for each degree Celsius.

• Absolute zero
– Lowest limit of temperature.
– Molecules have lost all available kinetic energy.
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 Internal Energy

• Energy at the particle level within a substance in

several forms, which, when taken together, are
called internal energy.
• The internal energy of a substance is quite
complicated; the simplest form are the kinetic
and potential energies of the molecules.
• Our study focuses not on the internal energy, per
se, but rather on the changes in internal energy
of a substance.

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 The First Law of Thermodynamics

• States that the heat added to a system

transforms to an equal amount of some other
form of energy.
Heat added to system =
increase in internal energy + work done by
system
• The first law of thermodynamics is a restatement
of the law of conservation of energy:
• Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

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 The First Law of Thermodynamics

• Another implication: Instead of adding heat, if we do

mechanical work on a system, we can expect an
increase in internal energy, i.e., temperature rise.
• Examples:
– Rubbing your hands, makes them
warmer.
– Joule's apparatus: As the weights fall,
they lose potential energy (mechanical),
which is converted to heat that warms
the water.

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 First Law of Thermodynamics
CHECK YOUR NEIGHBOR
When work is done on a system—for example,
compressing air in a tire pump—the temperature of the
system

A. increases.
B. decreases.
C. remains unchanged.
D. is no longer evident.

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 First Law of Thermodynamics
CHECK YOUR ANSWER
When work is done on a system—for example,
compressing air in a tire pump—the temperature of the
system

A. increases.
B. decreases.
C. remains unchanged.
D. is no longer evident.

Explanation:
In accord with the first law of thermodynamics, work input
increases the energy of the system.
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 Adiabatic Processes

• Compressing or expanding a gas while no heat

enters or leaves the system is an adiabatic
process.
• Adiabatic conditions are achieved by
– thermally insulating a system from its
surroundings, or
– performing the process so rapidly that heat
has no time to enter or leave.

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 Adiabatic Processes

Heat added to system = 0

So:
Increase/Decrease in internal energy
= work done on/by system
• Example:
– When we compress air using a
bicycle pump, i.e., when we do
work on the system, we heat the
air up, i.e., increase its internal
energy.
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 Adiabatic Processes
CHECK YOUR NEIGHBOR
Blow air on your hand first with your mouth wide open, then
with puckered lips. In which case is the air coming out of
your mouth cooler?

A. When your mouth is wide open

B. When your lips are puckered
C. It is equally cool in both cases.
D. It depends upon who does the experiment.

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 Adiabatic Processes
CHECK YOUR ANSWER
Blow air on your hand first with your mouth wide open, then
with puckered lips. In which case is the air coming out of
your mouth cooler?

A. When your mouth is wide open

B. When your lips are puckered
C. It is equally cool in both cases.
D. It depends upon who does the experiment.
Explanation:
When you pucker your lips the air expands as it comes out.
Air expanding adiabatically does work on the surroundings.
So, it loses internal energy which makes it cooler.
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 Meteorology and the First Law

• In the adiabatic form (i.e., when no heat is added), the

first law of thermodynamics becomes:
• Air temperature rises (or falls) as pressure increases
(or decreases).
• Adiabatic processes in the atmosphere occur in large
parts of the air, called parcels.
– Parcels are large enough that outside air doesn't
appreciably mix with the air inside them.
– They behave as if they are enclosed in giant, tissue-
light garment bags.

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 Meteorology and the First Law

• As parcels of air rise, they

experience lower pressure and so
they expand.
• The expanding air cools down—
10ºC for every 1-km rise in altitude.
• Air continues to rise and expand as
long as it has a higher temperature
than its surroundings.
• When it gets cooler than the
surroundings, it sinks
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 Meteorology and the First Law

• As parcels of air drop, they experience higher

pressure and heat up.
• Example: Chinook wind that descends from the
Rockies into the Great Plains warms up.

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 Meteorology and the First Law

• Air continues to rise and expand as long as it

has a higher temperature than its surroundings.
• When it gets cooler than the surroundings, it
sinks.
• So, sometimes cooler air occurs at an altitude
lower than warmer air: temperature inversion.

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 Meteorology and the First Law

• During a temperature inversion, if rising warm

air is denser than upper layers of warm air, it will
no longer rise.
• Example: Smoke from a • Example: Smog in LA is
campfire sometimes trapped by hot air from
may not rise. the desert coming over
the mountains.

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 Metrology and the First Law
CHECK YOUR NEIGHBOR
If a parcel of dry air initially at 10ºC at ground level expands
adiabatically while flowing upward alongside a mountain a
vertical distance of 5 km, what will its temperature be?

A. –10ºC
B. –20ºC
C. –40ºC
D. –50ºC

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 Metrology and the First Law
CHECK YOUR ANSWER
If a parcel of dry air initially at 10ºC at ground level expands
adiabatically while flowing upward alongside a mountain a
vertical distance of 5 km, what will its temperature be?

A. –10ºC Explanation:
Air cools at the rate of 10ºC for every 1 km.
B. –20ºC So, if it rises 5 km, it will cool: 10ºC x 5 = 50ºC.
C. –40ºC So, it will be 50ºC cooler than on the ground.
D. –50ºC Its temp. on the ground was 10ºC.
So, its temp. at the top will be 10ºC – 50ºC = –40ºC.

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 Second Law of Thermodynamics

• Heat itself never spontaneously flows from a cold

object to a hot substance.
• Example:
– In summer, heat flows from the hot air outside into
the cooler interior.
– In winter, heat flows from the warm inside to the cold
exterior.
• Heat can flow from cold to hot only when work is done
on the system or by adding energy from another source.
– Example: heat pumps, air conditioners

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 Second Law of Thermodynamics

• A heat engine is any device that converts

internal energy into mechanical work.
• The basic idea behind a heat engine is that
mechanical work can be obtained only when
heat flows from a high temperature to a low
temperature.
• In every heat engine, only some of the heat can
be transformed into work.

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 Second Law of Thermodynamics

• Every heat engine has

– a reservoir of heat at a high
temperature.
– a sink at lower temperature.
• Every heat engine
1. gathers heat from the reservoir
at high temperature.
2. converts some of this heat into
mechanical work.
3. expels the rest of the heat to the
sink at lower temperature.
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 Second Law of Thermodynamics

• Applied to heat engines, the second law of

thermodynamics is stated:
• When work is done by a heat engine operating
between two temperatures, Thot and Tcold, only some
of the input heat at Thot can be converted to work,
and the rest is expelled at Tcold.
• Every heat engine expels some heat, for example:
– The hood of a car becomes hot.
– Hot air is expelled from a laundry or baking oven.

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 Second Law of Thermodynamics

• The ideal (i.e., maximum possible) efficiency of a

heat engine was determined by Carnot.
• It depends upon the temperature of the hot
reservoir (Thot) and the cold sink (Tcold).
Thot – Tcold
Ideal efficiency =
Thot
where, Thot and Tcold are in kelvin.
• In real heat engines, the efficiency is actually
less than ideal, due to friction.
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 Second Law of Thermodynamics
CHECK YOUR NEIGHBOR
What is the ideal efficiency of a heat engine that is
operating between a hot reservoir at a temperature of 400
K and a cold sink at a temperature of 300 K?

A. 1/4
B. 1/2
C. 1/3
D. 3/4

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 Second Law of Thermodynamics
CHECK YOUR ANSWER
What is the ideal efficiency of a heat engine that is
operating between a hot reservoir at a temperature of 400
K and a cold sink at a temperature of 300 K?
Explanation:
A. 1/4
Use the formula by Carnot:
B. 1/2 Thot – Tcold
C. 1/3 Ideal efficiency =
Thot
D. 3/4
In this case: Thot = 400 K, Tcold = 300 K
So:
300
Ideal efficiency = 1 – = 1/4
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400
 Order Tends to Disorder

• Restatement of the second law of

thermodynamics
• In natural processes, high-quality energy
tends to transform into lower-quality energy—
order tends to disorder.
• Processes in nature moving from disorder to
order do not occur without external assistance.

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 Entropy

• The measure of the amount of disorder in a

system is called entropy.
• If disorder increases, then entropy increases.
• Entropy can decrease if work is put into the
system.
• Example: Living organisms take in food or
extract energy from their surroundings and
become more organized.

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 Entropy
CHECK YOUR NEIGHBOR
Your locker gets messier each week. In this case, the
entropy of your locker is

A. increasing.
B. decreasing.
C. hanging steady.
D. nonexistent.

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 Entropy
CHECK YOUR ANSWER
Your locker gets messier each week. In this case, the
entropy of your locker is

A. increasing.
B. decreasing.
C. hanging steady.
D. nonexistent.

Comment:
If your locker became more organized each week, then
entropy would decrease in proportion to the effort expended.
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 Entropy

• The net entropy in the universe is continually increasing

(continually running "downhill").
• We say net because there are some regions in which
energy is actually being organized and concentrated.
– This occurs in living organisms, which survive by
concentrating and organizing energy from food
sources.
– Energy must be transformed into the living system to
support life. When it isn't, the organism soon dies and
tends toward disorder.

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 Entropy

• The second law of thermodynamics is a

probabilistic statement.
• Given enough time, even the most improbable
states may occur; entropy may sometimes
decrease.
– For example, the haphazard motions of air
molecules could momentarily become
harmonious in a corner of the room.
• These situations are possible, but they are not
probable.
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 Meteorology and the First Law

• Thermodynamics is useful to meteorologists when

analyzing weather.
• The first law of thermodynamics is expressed as:
• Air temperature rises as heat is added or as
pressure is increased.
• Heat may be added as
– incoming solar radiation.
– radiation back from Earth.
– moisture condensation.
– contact with ground.

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