A Student's Guide to Entropy Author: Visit Amazon's Don S. Lemons Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1107653975 | Format: PDF
A Student's Guide to Entropy Description
Book Description
Striving to explore the subject in as simple a manner as possible, this book helps readers understand the elusive concept of entropy, and is an ideal supplement to undergraduate courses in physics, engineering, chemistry and mathematics. Nearly 50 end-of-chapter exercises test readers' understanding.
About the Author
Don S. Lemons is Professor Emeritus of Physics at Bethel College and a Guest Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He taught undergraduate physics at Bethel College for 23 years.
- Paperback: 200 pages
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 29, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1107653975
- ISBN-13: 978-1107653979
- Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Do not be misled by the description that appears on the book's back cover: "striving to explore the subject in as simple a manner as possible". The statement is accurate (as far as it goes) but requires an important caveat: entropy and thermodynamics are mathematically driven subjects and require math for an in depth discussion. Any discussion of entropy without mathematics can offer only a narrow conceptual overview which will inevitably be inadequate. However, there are two fine books published by Dover (at low Dover prices) that are quite helpful in offering a solid introduction. They contain some math but quantitatively less than A Student's Guide to Entropy. The books are Understanding Thermodynamics (Dover Books on Physics) by H. C. Van Ness and Thermodynamics (Dover Books on Physics) by the great Italian Physicist Enrico Fermi. An entirely conceptual discussion which leaves out any material that requires mathematics for understanding or for conceptual derivation is The Second Law (Scientific American Library) by P. W. Atkins, originally published in the Scientific American Library. It is a bit dated and leaves out a lot of important material, but there is no mathematics and it is a nice, clearly written introduction to the single most important concept in all of science.
A STUDENT’S GUIDE TO ENTROPY by Don S. Lemons is a 181 page physics book,printed on high quality white paper (not on newsprint paper). The book has eight chapters:
(1) Thermodynamic entropy.
(2) Statistical entropy.
(3) Entropy of classical systems.
(4) Entropy of quantized systems.
(5) Entropy of non-isolated system. ([typo?]
(6) Entropy of fermion systems.
(7) Entropy of systems of bosons.
(8) Entropy of information.
The book contains only one photograph, which is of a blown dandelion (page 160). This is the exact same photo as the cover photo. The text of the book also contains several drawings, including a flow chart showing heating or cooling (page 3); frictionless piston (page 4); heat reservoir (page 6); two points connected by a curve (page 8); evacuated chamber (page 13); oscillatory with ellipses (page 77); valence band microstates (page 107); and blackbody radiation (page 124). These are only a few samples. Throughout the book, every half dozen pages contains a drawing.
Throughout the book, every page or so contains a formula in algebra, or a formula using logarithms, or a formula using calculus. Thus, it is NOT the case that this is a “dumbed down” book. Instead, this seems to be a very practical book, geared to undergraduates. The book contains six Appendices, including a table of physical constants, e.g., Boltzmann’s constant, a six page glossary that includes, a definition of Maxwell’s Demon, and of “phonons.” Appendix V is only three pages long, and it provides a list of answers to problems. What is provided is 45 answers. (If I had written the book, I would have included an entire page for each problem, showing each step in the solution.
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