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Consequently, the object is in a state of static mechanical equilibrium. In classical mechanics, a particle is in mechanical equilibrium if the net force on that particle is zero. [1]: 39 By extension, a physical system made up of many parts is in mechanical equilibrium if the net force on each of its individual parts is zero. [1]: 45–46 [2]
The word equilibrium implies a state of balance. Equilibrium thermodynamics, in origins, derives from analysis of the Carnot cycle. Here, typically a system, as cylinder of gas, initially in its own state of internal thermodynamic equilibrium, is set out of balance via heat input from a combustion reaction. Then, through a series of steps, as ...
The static equilibrium of a particle is an important concept in statics. A particle is in equilibrium only if the resultant of all forces acting on the particle is equal to zero. In a rectangular coordinate system the equilibrium equations can be represented by three scalar equations, where the sums of forces in all three directions are equal ...
J.G. Kirkwood and I. Oppenheim define thermodynamic equilibrium as follows: "A system is in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium if, during the time period allotted for experimentation, (a) its intensive properties are independent of time and (b) no current of matter or energy exists in its interior or at its boundaries with the surroundings ...
The non-equilibrium energy flow is superimposed on a Maxwell-Boltzmann equilibrium distribution of molecular motions. Let ε 0 {\displaystyle \varepsilon _{0}} be the molecular kinetic energy of the gas at an imaginary horizontal surface inside the gas layer.
A quasi-static thermodynamic process can be visualized by graphically plotting the path of idealized changes to the system's state variables. In the example, a cycle consisting of four quasi-static processes is shown. Each process has a well-defined start and end point in the pressure-volume state space.
Mechanical equilibrium, the state in which the sum of the forces, and torque, on each particle of the system is zero; Radiative equilibrium, the state where the energy radiated is balanced by the energy absorbed; Secular equilibrium, a state of radioactive elements in which the production rate of a daughter nucleus is balanced by its own decay rate
If, rather than an isolated system, we have a closed system, in which the entropy rather than the energy remains constant, then it follows from the first and second laws of thermodynamics that the energy of that system will drop to a minimum value at equilibrium, transferring its energy to the other system. To restate: