Salient Features

• Caratheodory’s theory of the second law of thermodynamics is discussed in Chapter 5. Most of the text books ( expect few such as that of Sears and Salinger published by Narosa) do not contain the above rigorous theory of the second law.
• Mathematical pre-requisites necessary for the study of thermodynamics is discussed in Chapter 2.
• Difference between an exact differential and an inexact differential is analysed using a suitable example in chapter 2.
• Deficiencies of the first law and the relative merits of the second law are critically discussed in Chapter 5.
• How does the entropy appear as a state function? This is critically discussed using the Clausius inequality theorem in chapter 6.
• The generalised principles of degradation of available energy is discussed in Chapter 6 (problem 9). Most text books contain simplified degradation theorem.
• The problem of classical limit (i.e, the condition by which quantum statistics reduces to classical statistics) is discussed in Chapter 10(problem 1).