Heat and Thermodynamics e-bog

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. With so many good works in existence, both on Heat and Thermodynamics, it may perhaps appear presumptuous to publish the following text. The author, however, has long felt the need of a text, in teaching the subject of thermodynamics, which properly covers, without introducing too much material, the fundamental principles of heat measurements. To expect an average student to cull from his text book on physics, or some treatise on heat, no matter how well the subject may have been taught, an introduction to thermodynamics is, in general, expecting somewhat more of him than he can accomplish. But it has been found, by experience, that a short course on the fundamental principles of heat, given as an introduction to the subject of thermodynamics, greatly reduces the difficulties, experienced by most students, in pursuing this subject. Since it is almost impossible for a student to understand a complex piece of apparatus, unless he can actually examine it, long and tedious descriptions have been purposely avoided. Likewise, for the reason that photographs are seldom, if ever, of any value, all pictorial illustrations are diagrammatic. It is, of course, impossible to teach the subject of thermo dynamics without the application of differential and integral calculus; but the aim has been throughout to keep within the bounds of elementary mathematics. However, a fair knowledge of the calculus, on the part of the reader, has been assumed. Very few teachers, if any, can present an unbiassed view of a speculative theory; furthermore, before a student has thor oughly mastered the groundwork of any subject, he is not in a position to properly discriminate between the various arguments that may be advanced, either for or against a speculative theory. It must also be remembered that the average student looks upon his instructor as an infallible authority; and that he accepts a theory on the mere say so Of his instructor, no matter how flimsy the arguments upon which it may be bas