I have just realized that I never saved my college thermodynamics

[imsmooth]

Main Question or Discussion Point

I have just realized that I never saved my college thermodynamics textbook. Any recommendations for a good one that includes theory, equation derivations and problems? I would like it to cover all topics including adiabatic systems.

Thanks.

 

[Studiot]

Hopefully your new text will tell you that 'adiabatic' refers to the process, not the system.

At the level which adiabatic processes are introduced they are usually covered in a general physics text, such as Sears and Zemansky or Resnick and Halliday
You would need to try an engineering text such as that by Joel for a purely thermodynamics text.

 

[Q_Goest]

The NASA Compressed Gas Handbook is good for the thermodynamics of a gas and it's free.
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19690017609

 

[imsmooth]

Hopefully your new text will tell you that 'adiabatic' refers to the process, not the system.

At the level which adiabatic processes are introduced they are usually covered in a general physics text, such as Sears and Zemansky or Resnick and Halliday
You would need to try an engineering text such as that by Joel for a purely thermodynamics text.

I do have the general physics text by Resnick. I've reread that chapter. I wanted something with more detail. Is Joel's text the one used for college thermodynamics courses?

 

[Studiot]

Well Engineering Thermodynamics by Rayner Joel is a well respected first text for (mech) engineers who will go on to build steam and jet engines, refrigeration, heating and ventilating plant and so on. There is much discussion of adiabatic, polytropic and other processes in relatively simple terms, though still useful enough to use steam tables or build something.

A good modern physics degree level text is Basic Thermodynamics by Carrington from Oxford University Press. This introduces Gibbs formulations and the beginnings of Statmech following a good grounding in classical thermo.

 

[cmos]

You might also try Callen, "Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatistics." It's meant as a text for physics majors back when physics majors studied classical thermodynamics separately from stat. mech. That being said, I find this text to be very useful for and accessible to non-physicists.