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Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, ... For example, the Helmholtz and Gibbs ...
A prime example of this irreversibility is the transfer of heat by conduction or radiation. It was known long before the discovery of the notion of entropy that when two bodies, initially of different temperatures, come into direct thermal connection, then heat immediately and spontaneously flows from the hotter body to the colder one.
Thus the description of non-equilibrium thermodynamic systems is a field theory, more complicated than the theory of equilibrium thermodynamics. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a growing subject, not an established edifice. Example theories and modeling approaches include the GENERIC formalism for complex fluids, viscoelasticity, and soft ...
In thermodynamics, a physical property is any property that is measurable, and whose value describes a state of a physical system. Thermodynamic properties are defined as characteristic features of a system, capable of specifying the system's state.
The first law of thermodynamics is a formulation of the law of conservation of energy in the context of thermodynamic processes.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 second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal empirical observation concerning heat and energy interconversions.A simple statement of the law is that heat always flows spontaneously from hotter to colder regions of matter (or 'downhill' in terms of the temperature gradient).
The Otto Cycle is an example of a reversible thermodynamic cycle. 1→2: Isentropic / adiabatic expansion: Constant entropy (s), Decrease in pressure (P), Increase in volume (v), Decrease in temperature (T) 2→3: Isochoric cooling: Constant volume(v), Decrease in pressure (P), Decrease in entropy (S), Decrease in temperature (T)
An example of a system that does not have a unique ground state is one whose net spin is a half-integer, for which time-reversal symmetry gives two degenerate ground states. For such systems, the entropy at zero temperature is at least k B ln(2) (which is negligible on a macroscopic scale).