Physics 16A Recap...

If you are interested in refreshing or reviewing the information on thermodynamics that we have started studying in chapter 16, here are the videos that we have watched in class and discussed at length. If you have any questions please be sure to ask!!

To understand more about what the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics is (and one I had never even heard about until teaching this book) sets the parameters for temperature in relation to a gas. Now gases seek thermal equilibrium and according to this law if Gas A is in thermal equilibrium with Gas B and Gas B is in equilibrium with Gas C; then Gas A and Gas C are also at thermal equilibrium.  Here is the first part animation of this concept.

For the 1st Law of Thermodynamics (the "conservation of energy" law) describes the fact that thermal energy is neither created or destroyed. It is simply converted into another form of energy. Usually when Heat (Q) is added to a system, there is a change in Mechanical Energy (delta U) plus Work (W) that is done.  Mr. Anderson explains this law along with other thermodynamic processes (in relation to gas using our gas equation PV=nRT) and how they can be charted on a graph when 1) pressure is constant, 2) when volume is constant, 3) when temperature is constant, and 4) when there is no change at all or an adiabatic process (NOT bolded in your book but is still a thermodynamic process even though nothing changes). These are all graphed differently on a P-V diagram. It will be imperative that you remember the names of the processes and how they are graphed.

And last but not least this video by Doc Physics will put together both laws and how they relate to work and mass-less piston. The key to this is understanding what the negative signs for both heat and work indicate in the equation.

Again if you have any questions be sure to let me know. Hope this will help in your review for the quiz over 16A tomorrow and the test next Friday.