4100 Thermodynamics

Maxwell and Boltzmann


What is heat?

Newtonian Dynamics leads to a predictable (deterministic) system. Are all systems predictable?


There are two views of heat:

The first understanding of this comes from looking at gases.


Heat and the Ideal Gas

So where is the energy in heat? Critical experiments were done with gases:




Kinetic Theory

We will look at a model first: a gas of a few atoms.







The First Law of Thermodynamics


Second Law of Thermodynamics

For example, why can't we have (e.g) a boat that takes in water at 20°C, extracts some heat, turns it into energy and exhausts cold water

Doesn't violate first law

Second Law of Thermodynamics

A man who is ignorant of the second law of thermodynamics can no more claim to be educated than a scientist who has never read Shakespeare or Milton (C. P. Snow, paraphrased)


Entropy

  • Essentially the relative probability of finding a particular arrangement by chance. If arrangement is improbable, we can always get work out of it.


    Another version of the 2nd Law:

    Entropy tends to increase in a closed system.


    Where does the hydro power come from?

    Murphy's versions of the laws of thermodynamics


    2nd law and evolution


    The connection with time..how is tomorrow different from yesterday?

    Kinetic theory

    provides the understanding for a large number of phenomena:





    Since the kinetic theory is "obvious" it must have been discovered very early? Almost all scientists associate it with James Clerk Maxwell, who developed it around 1860.



    Heat in summary:

    Looks like a disconnected series of phenomena but can understand it in terms of kinetic model Most fundamental principles

    First law

    , which is (almost) conservation of energy
      δU = Q-W
    

    Second law:

    Entropy increases in a closed system
    Note what we have done in all this discussion: we have taken
    • Newton's laws of motion
    • Conservation of Momentum
    • Conservation of Energy
    • and a model for what a gas is.

    In terms of our scientific model
    face face

    Chaotic Motion

    She comes, she comes, the sable throne behold
    Of Night Primeval and of Chaos old!
    ...
    Physic of Metaphysic begs defence
    and Metaphysic calls for aid on Sense
    See Mystery to Mathematics fly
    In vain! they gaze, turn giddy, rave and die ....
    Lo! thy Dread Empire, Chaos is restored
    Light dies before thy uncreating Word.
    Alexander Pope, The Dunciad

    Up to know we have discussed two kinds of system:


    Chaotic systems:
    the easiest one to visualize, although technically it is not chaotic, is the "baker transform" The formula is
    xn =2xn-1 if 2xn-1 < 1
    xn =2xn-1 -1 if 2xn-1 > 1
    

    For example, we can start with two points very close together and see what happens:


    Step Particle 1 Particle 2 Distance
    1 0.001 0.0011 0.0001
    2 0.002 0.0022 0.0002
    3 0.004 0.0044 0.0004
    4 0.008 0.0088 0.0008
    5 0.016 0.0176 0.0016
    6 0.032 0.0352 0.0032
    7 0.064 0.0704 0.0064
    8 0.128 0.1408 0.0128
    9 0.256 0.2816 0.0256
    10 0.512 0.5632 0.0512
    11 0.024 0.1264 0.1024

    If you plot the , it looks nice and smooth to start with, but suddenly looks random.

    The real physics applications relate to the Lorenz equation and similar. The easiest to visualize is the "logistic map", which originally arose in modelling population growth. All chaotic systems have some common features

    Dynamic Map:



    This is what happens for r = 2 (say)

    However, for r = , a curious effect arises: the number actually oscillates.

    This doesn't seem too bad, until you increase r a bit more

    Now you have a period 4 (same period, but two different heights). If we increase r a little more, the behaviour becomes chaotic

    There is a nice way of seeing this: a "logistic map." (1Dmap) One can iterate between the curves
    y = x
    y = r x(1-x) 
    For small r = 2.9 we get iteration to the "stationary point"

    For medium r = 3.16 we get a "period 2"

    For slightly larger r = 3.59 we get a "period 4"

    For large r = 3.66 we get chaos

    Assignment: these come from a web-site
    http://math.la.asu.edu/~chaos/logistic.html

    Go to this site and experiment to find the exact value at which period doubling starts, and which the period 4 starts and see if you can find a period 8 solution.
    It is possible to plot the period: this is a "bifurcation diagram"


    and we can look at this in a bit more detail:

    What was totally unexpected was that such a simple system could have such a complex behaviour. Note that period doubling repeats itself, after chaos sets in there are still regions of the parameter r for which the solution is simple!


    A physical example the "chaotic pendulum". Small swings are predictable,

    Medium ones are quasi-periodic

    large are not.

    The most famous example is weather. "Primitive Equations" written down by L F Richardson (1922). Can't be solved without computer

    “After so much hard reasoning, may one play with a fantasy? Imagine a large hall like a theatre, except that the circles and galleries go right round through the space usually occupied by the stage. The walls of this chamber are painted to form a map of the globe. The ceiling represents the north polar regions, England is in the gallery, the tropics in the upper circle, Australia on the dress circle and the antarctic in the pit.

    A myriad computers are at work upon the weather of the part of the map where each sits, but each computer attends only to one equation or part of an equation. The work of each region is coordinated by an official of higher rank. Numerous little "night signs" display the instantaneous values so that neighbouring computers can read them. Each number is thus displayed in three adjacent zones so as to maintain communication to the North and South on the map.

    (computers in old fashioned sense of someone who computes!)


    From the floor of the pit a tall pillar rises to half the height of the hall. It carries a large pulpit on its top. In this sits the man in charge of the whole theatre; he is surrounded by several assistants and messengers. One of his duties is to maintain a uniform speed of progress in all parts of the globe. In this respect he is like the conductor of an orchestra in which the instruments are slide-rules and calculating machines. But instead of waving a baton he turns a beam of rosy light upon any region that is running ahead of the rest, and a beam of blue light upon those who are behindhand.

    Four senior clerks in the central pulpit are collecting the future weather as fast as it is being computed, and despatching it by pneumatic carrier to a quiet room. There it will be coded and telephoned to the radio transmitting station. Messengers carry piles of used computing forms down to a storehouse in the cellar.

    In a neighbouring building there is a research department, where they invent improvements. But these is much experimenting on a small scale before any change is made in the complex routine of the computing theatre. In a basement an enthusiast is observing eddies in the liquid lining of a huge spinning bowl, but so far the arithmetic proves the better way. In another building are all the usual financial, correspondence and administrative offices. Outside are playing fields, houses, mountains and lakes, for it was thought that those who compute the weather should breathe of it freely.” (Richardson 1922)