In science, thermodynamics is the study of the relationship between heat and other forms of energy, such as work, electricity, and light, etc., as can be quantified by measurements, such as, for instance, pressure, volume, and temperature. The cornerstones of thermodynamics are the four laws of thermodynamics, which define the rules of temperature equivalence (zeroth law), energy conservation (first law), entropy tendencies (second law), and conditions for an absence of temperature (third law). [1] The term "thermo-dynamic" was coined in 1849 by Irish physicist William Thomson.

Nutshell history

See main: history of thermodynamics

In a nutshell, thermodynamics is the science, developed between 1823 and 1882, that overthrew the caloric theory, vitalism, perpetual motion theory, and affinity theory, replacing them with the kinetic theory of heat, mechanical equivalent of heat, the conservation of energy (or force), entropy, and free energy, respectively.

The foundations of thermodynamics, according to American mathematical physicist Willard Gibbs, began to be laid in 1850. Specifically, according to Gibbs, the first memoir on thermodynamics published in 1850 by German physicist Rudolf Clausius, titled “Uber die bewegende Kraft der Wärme, und die Gesetze, welche sich daraus für die Wärmelehre selbst ableiten lassen” (“On the Motive Power of Heat, and on the Laws which can be Deduced from it for the Theory of Heat”), “marks an epoch in history of physics”. Moreover, according to the 1889 words of Gibbs: [2]

“If we say, in the words of Maxwell some years ago (1878), that thermodynamics is ‘a science with secure foundations, clear definitions, and distinct boundaries,’ and ask when those foundations were laid, those definitions fixed, and those boundaries traced, there can be but one answer. Certainly not before the publication of that memoir (Clausius, 1850).”

General branches of
● Statistical thermodynamics (gas-phase systems)
● Chemical thermodynamics (chemical systems)
● Biochemical thermodynamics (biochemicial systems)
● Nonequilibrium thermodynamics (fluxing systems)
● Human thermodynamics (systems of humans)
● Cosmic thermodynamics (galactic systems)
● Quantum thermodynamics (quantum mechanical systems)
● Nanothermodynamics

Focused branches of
● Geochemical thermodynamics
● Supramolecular thermodynamics
● Surface thermodynamics
● Drug-receptor thermodynamics

See also
● Founders of thermodynamics
● Thermo-dynamics

Classic books available online

• Clausius, R. (1865). The Mechanical Theory of Heat – with its Applications to the Steam Engine and to Physical Properties of Bodies. London: John van Voorst, 1 Paternoster Row. MDCCCLXVII.
• Tait, Peter G. (1868). Sketch of Thermodynamics (PDF), 208 pgs. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas.
• Gibbs, J. Willard (1876). The Scientific Papers of J. Willard Gibbs - Volume One Thermodynamics. Ox Bow Press.
• Thruston, Robert H. (1978). A History of the Growth of the Steam Engine (Ch. 7: "The Philosophy of the Steam Engine - Energetics and Thermo-Dynamics). New York: D. Appleton and Co.
• Clausius, Rudolf. (1879). The Mechanical Theory of Heat (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan & Co.
• Cotterill, James Henry. (1890). The Steam Engine Considered as a Thermodynamic Machine (2nd ed.), 426 pgs. London: E. & F. N. Spon.
• Reeve, Sidney Armor. (1903). The Thermodynamics of Steam Engines. London: The Macmillan Co.
• Goodenough, G.A. (1911). Principles of Thermodynamics. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

References
1. Atkins, Peter. (2007). Four Laws - that Drive the Universe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. Gibbs, Willard. (1889). “Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius,” Proceedings of the American Academy, new series, vol. XVI, pgs. 458-65. In The Scientific Papers of J. Willard Gibbs (Volume II).

External links
● Thermodynamics - Zimbio