Rational Thermodynamics
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Rational Thermodynamics
Rational thermodynamics is a school of thought in statistical thermodynamics developed in the 1960s. Its introduction is attributed to Clifford Truesdell, and Walter Noll. The aim was to develop a mathematical model of thermodynamics that would go beyond the traditional "thermodynamics of irreversible processes" or TIP developed in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Truesdell's "flamboyant style" and "satirical verve" caused controversy between "rational thermodynamics" and proponents of traditional thermodynamics.Müller, Ingo (2007). ''A History of Thermodynamics: the Doctrine of Energy and Entropy''. Springer. "Truesdell’s outspoken partisanship of rational thermodynamics and his flamboyant style fuelled some lively controversies between adherents of TIP and the protagonists of rational thermodynamics, chiefly Truesdell himself. His attacks on Onsagerism were advanced with much satirical verve, that makes them fun to read for those who were not targeted. However, the defe ...
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Statistical Thermodynamics
In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. Sometimes called statistical physics or statistical thermodynamics, its applications include many problems in a wide variety of fields such as biology, neuroscience, computer science, information theory and sociology. Its main purpose is to clarify the properties of matter in aggregate, in terms of physical laws governing atomic motion. Statistical mechanics arose out of the development of classical thermodynamics, a field for which it was successful in explaining macroscopic physical properties—such as temperature, pressure, and heat capacity—in terms of microscopic parameters that fluctuate about average values and are characterized by probability distributions. While classical thermodynamics is primarily concerned with thermodynamic equilibrium, statistical mechanics has been applied in non-equilibrium statistic ...
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Clifford Truesdell
Clifford Ambrose Truesdell III (February 18, 1919 – January 14, 2000) was an American mathematician, natural philosopher, and historian of science. Life Truesdell was born in Los Angeles, California. After high school, he spent two years in Europe learning French, German, and Italian, and improving his Latin and Greek. His linguistic skills stood him in good stead in his later historical investigations. At Caltech he was deeply influenced by the teaching of Harry Bateman. In particular, a course in partial differential equations "taught me the difference between an ordinary good teacher and a great mathematician, and after that I never cared what grade I got in anything." He obtained a B.Sc. in mathematics and physics in 1941, and an MSc. in mathematics in 1942. In 1943, he completed a Ph.D. in mathematics at Princeton University. For the rest of the decade, the U.S. Navy employed him to do mechanics research. Truesdell taught at Indiana University 1950–61, where his students ...
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Walter Noll
Walter Noll (January 7, 1925 June 6, 2017) was a mathematician, and Professor Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University. He is best known for developing mathematical tools of classical mechanics, thermodynamics, and continuum mechanics. Biography Born in Berlin, Weimar Germany, Noll had his school education in a suburb of Berlin. In 1954, Noll earned a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Indiana University Bloomington in 1954 under Clifford Truesdell. His thesis "On the Continuity of the Solid and Fluid States" was published both in '' Journal of Rational Mechanics and Analysis'' and in one of Truesdell's books. Noll thanks Jerald Ericksen for his critical input to the thesis. Noll has served as a visiting professor at the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Karlsruhe, the Israel Institute of Technology, the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine in Nancy, the University of Pisa, the University of Pavia, and the University of Oxford. In 2012 he became a fellow of ...
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Reversible Process (thermodynamics)
In thermodynamics, a reversible process is a process, involving a system and its surroundings, whose direction can be reversed by infinitesimal changes in some properties of the surroundings, such as pressure or temperature. Throughout an entire reversible process, the system is in thermodynamic equilibrium, both physical and chemical, and ''nearly'' in pressure and temperature equilibrium with its surroundings. This prevents unbalanced forces and acceleration of moving system boundaries, which in turn avoids friction and other dissipation. To maintain equilibrium, reversible processes are extremely slow ( ''quasistatic''). The process must occur slowly enough that after some small change in a thermodynamic parameter, the physical processes in the system have enough time for the other parameters to self-adjust to match the new, changed parameter value. For example, if a container of water has sat in a room long enough to match the steady temperature of the surrounding air, for ...
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Onsager Reciprocal Relations
In thermodynamics, the Onsager reciprocal relations express the equality of certain ratios between flows and forces in thermodynamic systems out of equilibrium, but where a notion of local equilibrium exists. "Reciprocal relations" occur between different pairs of forces and flows in a variety of physical systems. For example, consider fluid systems described in terms of temperature, matter density, and pressure. In this class of systems, it is known that temperature differences lead to heat flows from the warmer to the colder parts of the system; similarly, pressure differences will lead to matter flow from high-pressure to low-pressure regions. What is remarkable is the observation that, when both pressure and temperature vary, temperature differences at constant pressure can cause matter flow (as in convection) and pressure differences at constant temperature can cause heat flow. Perhaps surprisingly, the heat flow per unit of pressure difference and the density (matter) flo ...
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Tommaso Ruggeri
Tommaso Ruggeri (born 31 July 1947) is an Italian mathematical physicist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Bologna. He is known for his contributions to the theory of nonlinear wave propagation, Rational Extended Thermodynamics (RET), and hyperbolic formulations of general relativity. Biography He graduated in Theoretical Physics ''cum laude'' from the University of Messina on 30 June 1969. He then worked as an assistant in Rational Mechanics (1969–1973), becoming Associate Professor at the University of Bologna in 1973 and Full Professor of Mathematical Physics in 1980. In 2019 he was named Emeritus Professor. Scientific activity Nonlinear wave propagation He developed a general method for symmetrizing systems of hyperbolic balance laws with convex entropy, contributing significantly to the theory of shock and acceleration waves in classical and relativistic continua. Rational Extended Thermodynamics (RET) Together with Ingo Müller, Ruggeri developed Ratio ...
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Archive For Rational Mechanics And Analysis
The ''Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis'' is a scientific journal that is devoted to research in mechanics as a deductive, mathematical science. The current editors in chief of the journal are Felix Otto and Vladimir Sverak. It was founded in 1956 by Clifford Truesdell when he moved from Indiana University to Johns Hopkins and lost control of a similar journal he had founded a few years previously, the ''Journal of Rational Mechanics and Analysis'' (now the '' Indiana University Mathematics Journal''). Gianfranco Capriz. writes that Truesdell's ideals of mathematical and typesetting rigor gave the new journal a high reputation: James Serrin James Burton Serrin (1 November 1926, Chicago, Illinois – 23 August 2012, Minneapolis, Minnesota) was an American mathematician, and a professor at University of Minnesota. Life He graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1944. He then ..., a later editor of the Archive, adds that it became the center of a revival of ...
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