What is thermodynamics?
Thermodynamics is a branch of physics concerned with heat, temperature, volume, and pressure and their relation to energy and work. It describes how different systems interact within it and with other systems.
There are many components related to thermodynamics including pressure, volume, and temperature that explains how engines, balloons, and other simple or complex systems happen.
Pressure
Pressure is everywhere... think of gas particles in the air. They bounce around hitting other particles and surfaces in their way. If you shrink the space they are allowed to move in, they will bounce on the surfaces at a faster pace, making for a greater pressure. If you increase the space they are allowed to move in, the will bounce on the surfaces at a slower rate/frequency, making for less pressure. To summarize what pressure is, it is the measure of air or other substances, bouncing of a contained area creating a force against that surface. Pressure is measured in pascals or newtons per meter squared. |
Volume
Volume is the area within a container. Volume plays a key part in thermodynamics, for it tells the area in which certain substances move and where pressure applies. It is measured in meters cubed.
Temperature
Temperature in thermodynamics doesn't describe the amount of heat in an area, but the amount of kinetic energy in a system. Celsius is a temperature scale based on the boiling of water and freezing of it; Fahrenheit is a temperature scale based on the human body and ratios of different substances; and in thermodynamics, kelvin is a temperature scale based on the amount of kinetic energy in a system. Once again recall the air particles bouncing around in a container. If the container rises in heat then the kinetic energy in the system will rise making the particles move faster. Assuming the volume stays the same, this increase in temperature/heat will cause the pressure to rise from the particles bouncing on the surfaces at a greater rate, and this works vice versa for if you decrease the temperature. Absolute zero occurs when there is no kinetic energy, or movement of atoms/particles, within a system. This temperature is at 0 degrees kelvin or -273.15 degrees celsius. During this state, NOTHING moves; this state has never been documented to occur or take place before. |
Work
Work is energy expended to do things in or outside of a system; it's measured in joules, newtons per meters squared. For example if a balloon is heated so that its volume increases but the internal energy remains the same, work had to be done to make the temperature the same, so the increase of the temperature has to be equal to the amount of work the system does to increase the volume of the balloon. |