On Classical Ideal Gases

We show that the thermodynamics of ideal gases may be derived solely from the Democritean concept of corpuscles moving in vacuum plus a principle of simplicity, namely that these laws are independent of the laws of motion, aside from the law of energy conservation. Only a single corpuscle in contact...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Laurent Chusseau, Jacques Arnaud, Fabrice Philippe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2013-02-01
Series:Entropy
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/3/960
Description
Summary:We show that the thermodynamics of ideal gases may be derived solely from the Democritean concept of corpuscles moving in vacuum plus a principle of simplicity, namely that these laws are independent of the laws of motion, aside from the law of energy conservation. Only a single corpuscle in contact with a heat bath submitted to a z and t-invariant force is considered. Most of the end results are known but the method appears to be novel. The mathematics being elementary, the present paper should facilitate the understanding of the ideal gas law and of classical thermodynamics even though not-usually-taught concepts are being introduced.
ISSN:1099-4300