Six Ideas That Shaped Physics: Unit T - Some Processes are Irreversible

by Thomas A. Moore

Overview

Six Ideas that Shaped Physics is comprised of six units, providing a unique approach to a two- or three-semester calculus-based introductory physics course. The text is designed to teach students to apply basic physical principles to realistic situations, and to resolve contradictions between their preconceived notions and the laws of physics. Through integrated practice, students learn to solve realistic problems, and organize the ideas of physics into an integrated hierarchy.

The six units are:
Unit C: Conservation laws constrain interactions
Unit N: The laws of physics are universal (Newtonian mechanics)
Unit R: The laws of physics are frame-independent (Relativity)
Unit E: Electricity and magnetism are unified
Unit Q: Matter behaves like waves (Quantum physics)
Unit T: Some processes are irreversible (Thermal physics)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781264877775
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	01/10/2022
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Thomas A. Moore graduated from Carleton College (magna cum laude with Distinction in Physics) in 1976. He won a Danforth Fellowship that year that supported his graduate education at Yale University, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1981. He taught at Carleton College and Luther College before taking his current position at Pomona College in 1987, where he won a Wig Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1991. He served as an active member of the steering committee for the national Introductory University Physics Project (IUPP) from 1987 through 1995. This textbook grew out of a model curriculum that he developed for that project in 1989, which was one of only four selected for further development and testing by IUPP.
He has published a number of articles about astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, detection of gravitational waves, and new approaches to teaching physics, as well as a book on general relativity entitled A General Relativity Workbook (University Science Books, 2013). He has also served as a reviewer and as an associate editor for American Journal of Physics. He currently lives in Claremont, California, with his wife Joyce, a retired pastor. When he is not teaching, doing research, or writing, he enjoys reading, hiking, calling contradances, and playing Irish traditional music.

Table of Contents

Unit T
T1 Temperature
T2 Macrostates and Microstates
T3 Entropy and Temperature
T4 The Boltzmann Factor
T5 The Ideal Gas
T6 Molecular Motion in Gases
T7 Photon Gases
T8 Gas Processes
T9 Calculating Entropy Changes
T10 Heat Engines
T11 The Physics of Climate Change