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Properties of isolated, closed, and open thermodynamic systems in exchanging energy and matter. 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.
Altitude (or elevation) is usually not a thermodynamic property. Altitude can help specify the location of a system, but that does not describe the state of the system. An exception would be if the effect of gravity need to be considered in order to describe a state, in which case altitude could indeed be a thermodynamic property.
Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, ... Once in thermodynamic equilibrium, a system's properties are, by definition, unchanging in time ...
The history of thermodynamics is fundamentally interwoven with the history of physics and the history of chemistry, and ultimately dates back to theories of heat in antiquity. The laws of thermodynamics are the result of progress made in this field over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
A specific property is the intensive property obtained by dividing an extensive property of a system by its mass. For example, heat capacity is an extensive property of a system. Dividing heat capacity, , by the mass of the system gives the specific heat capacity, , which is an intensive property. When the extensive property is represented by ...
A thermodynamic system is a macroscopic object, the microscopic details of which are not explicitly considered in its thermodynamic description. The number of state variables required to specify the thermodynamic state depends on the system, and is not always known in advance of experiment; it is usually found from experimental evidence.
The internal energy of a thermodynamic system is the energy of the system as a state function, measured as the quantity of energy necessary to bring the system from its standard internal state to its present internal state of interest, accounting for the gains and losses of energy due to changes in its internal state, including such quantities as magnetization.
The law distinguishes two principal forms of energy transfer, heat and thermodynamic work, that modify a thermodynamic system containing a constant amount of matter. The law also defines the internal energy of a system, an extensive property for taking account of the balance of heat and work in the system. Energy cannot be created or destroyed ...