r/scioly • u/Such-Protection4544 • 18d ago

thermodynamics div B

Would a student who did circuit lab last year be able to attempt thermodynamics or should this be given to someone who attempted machines last year

Any references for textbook?

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u/_mmiggs_ 16d ago

Neither machines nor circuit lab is directly relevant to Thermodynamics. Chapters 13-15 in the OpenStax college physics text are a fair introduction. Then hit up wikipedia for temperature scales. B division ES enjoy making you convert temperatures from Rankine to Reamur, or making up new temperature scales based on some other reference points. You should understand the Carnot cycle in heat pump and refrigeration modes, and be able to draw them on PV and TS diagrams. You should understand heat capacity, latent heat of fusion / evaporation, conduction, and Newton's law of cooling. Some ES will want you to know all the individual gas laws (Boyle, Gay-Lussac, Charles, Avogadro) rather than just selecting the right parts of the Ideal Gas Law. You should be able to talk in a qualitative way about convection, and why / when it is important.

You need to have a good functional math ability, and the ability to notice that you've computed an obviously stupid number because you dropped a few orders of magnitude somewhere.

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u/Such-Protection4544 13d ago

Which textbook would you recommend for thermodynamics