Practical Thermodynamics: A Treatise on the Theory and Design of Heat Engines, Refrigeration Machinery, and Other Power-Plant Apparatus (Classic Reprint)

The book is intended primarily as a text-book for the use of junior and senior classes in mechanical and electrical engineering. It therefore attempts to present the subject of thermodynamics from the physical rather than from the mathematical standpoint. While the treatment of the subject is rigorous, a minimum of higher mathematics is used and the methods employed are those which appeal to common sense rather than to a knowledge of calculus. The writer believes that the higher mathematics are to be regarded merely as a set of tools by the use of which the engineer may accomplish certain results. Hence the methods employed in developing the mathematical part of the work depend upon the objects to be accomplished, and are the simplest and most effective possible. They are usually methods which lay stress on the physical phenomena rather than those which appeal to the accomplished mathematician. The writer has not hesitated to present new methods whenever these methods seem to be simpler and better than the older ones. Much of the difficulty of teaching thermodynamics arises out of a misunderstanding on the part of the student, of the phraseology usually employed, and from attempts to introduce the abstractions of the ancient philosophers into the concretions of modern science. A ccordingly, no chapters are devoted to the first or second laws of thermodynamics and no puzzling or troublesome analogies are offered for entropy. Many definitions differ radically from those offered in other text-books, but the changes made are considered advisable in order to make the presentation of the subject more logical or more simple.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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