San Antonio College Library

The laws of thermodynamics drive everything that happens in the universe. From the sudden expansion of a cloud of gas to the cooling of hot metal, and from the unfurling of a leaf to the course of life itself - everything is directed and constrained by four simple laws. Atkins' explains what the laws are and how they work.

This title explores the history of the ideas of what heat was, from the ancient element of fire to the 18th-century notion of heat as an indestructible fluid. It explains the revolutionary experiments that developed the early theories of thermodynamics and discusses the theories that helped formalise the new ideas of heat and energy.

In The Refrigerator and the Universe, Martin and Inge Goldstein explain the laws of thermodynamics for science buffs and neophytes alike. They begin with a lively presentation of the historical development of thermodynamics. The authors then show how the laws follow from the atomic theory of matter and give examples of their applicability to such diverse phenomena as the radiation of light from hot bodies, the formation of diamonds from graphite,...

"This book discusses the proper definitions of entropy, the valid interpretation of entropy and some useful applications of the concept of entropy. Unlike many books which apply the concept of entropy to systems for which it is not even defined (such as living systems, black holes and the entire universe), these applications will help the reader to understand the meaning of entropy. It also emphasizes the limitations of the applicability of the concept...

Energy and the Ecological Economics of Sustainability examines the roots of the present environmental crisis in the neoclassical economics upon which modern industrial society is based. The author explains that only when we view ourselves in the larger context of the global ecosystem and accept the physical limits to what is possible can sustainability be achieved.

"Speculative Truth: Henry Cavendish, Natural Philosophy, and the Rise of Modern Theoretical Science consists of two major parts. In the first, Russell McCormmach writes a detailed biography and commentary on Lord Henry Cavendish, the pioneering British physicist active in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries who, in the modern sense, is widely considered the first full-time scientist. The second is the inaugural full text publication...