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In thermodynamics, interactions between large ensembles of objects are studied and categorized. Central to this are the concepts of the thermodynamic system and its surroundings. A system is composed of particles, whose average motions define its properties, and those properties are in turn related to one another through equations of state.
A thermodynamic system is a body of matter and/or radiation separate from its surroundings that can be studied using the laws of thermodynamics. Thermodynamic systems can be passive and active according to internal processes.
Thermodynamic work is one of the principal kinds of process by which a thermodynamic system can interact with and transfer energy to its surroundings. This results in externally measurable macroscopic forces on the system's surroundings, which can cause mechanical work, to lift a weight, for example, [1] or cause changes in electromagnetic, [2] [3] [4] or gravitational [5] variables.
The choice is usually made on the basis of the walls and surroundings that are relevant for the thermodynamic processes that are to be considered for the system. For example, if it is intended to consider heat transfer for the system, then a wall of the system should be permeable to heat, and that wall should connect the system to a body, in ...
Often the surroundings of a thermodynamic system may also be regarded as another thermodynamic system. In this view, one may consider the system and its surroundings as two systems in mutual contact, with long-range forces also linking them. The enclosure of the system is the surface of contiguity or boundary between the two systems.
It is, however, the fruit of experience that some physical systems, including isolated ones, do seem to reach their own states of internal thermodynamic equilibrium. Classical thermodynamics postulates the existence of systems in their own states of internal thermodynamic equilibrium. This postulate is a very useful idealization.
The behavior of a thermodynamic system is summarized in the laws of Thermodynamics, which concisely are: . Zeroth law of thermodynamics; If A, B, C are thermodynamic systems such that A is in thermal equilibrium with B and B is in thermal equilibrium with C, then A is in thermal equilibrium with C.
In thermodynamics, a diathermal wall between two thermodynamic systems allows heat transfer but does not allow transfer of matter across it.. The diathermal wall is important because, in thermodynamics, it is customary to assume a priori, for a closed system, the physical existence of transfer of energy across a wall that is impermeable to matter but is not adiabatic, transfer which is called ...