Ch 11Thermodynamics — Class 11 Physics, concept-first.

Thermodynamics is the branch of physics that studies how heat, work and internal energy are exchanged between a system and its surroundings, and what limits nature places on these exchanges.

When two bodies at different temperatures are brought into contact through a wall that conducts heat (called a diathermic wall), heat flows spontaneously from the hotter body to the colder one until,…

The Zeroth law of thermodynamics states:

Internal energy () of a system is the total energy stored within it due to the random microscopic motion and mutual interaction of its constituent molecules: the kinetic energy of molecules moving, ro…

The first law of thermodynamics is the precise statement, for a thermodynamic system, of the general principle of conservation of energy: energy can be converted from one form into another (here, spec…

A gas's temperature can be raised by supplying heat under many different conditions, and the amount of heat needed to produce a given rise in temperature depends on which condition is chosen.

An isothermal process is any process carried out in such a way that the temperature of the system remains exactly constant throughout.

An adiabatic process is one in which absolutely no heat enters or leaves the system at any stage: throughout.

The first law of thermodynamics is simply a statement of energy conservation, and by itself it places no restriction at all on the direction in which a process can occur -- as far as the first law is…

A reversible process is an idealised process carried out infinitely slowly, in such small steps that the system passes through an unbroken sequence of states, each one only infinitesimally displaced f…

A heat engine is any device that converts heat into continuous, usable mechanical work by carrying a working substance (steam, or a fuel-air mixture, for example) through a repeating cyclic process --…

The Carnot engine is an idealised heat engine, conceived by the French engineer Sadi Carnot, built entirely out of reversible steps and operating between only two fixed temperatures: it absorbs heat o…

A refrigerator -- and, viewed from the opposite point of use, a heat pump used for heating -- is, in precise thermodynamic terms, nothing but a heat engine run backward.

This chapter developed WBCHSE Unit 8's account of thermodynamics in the order the syllabus lays it out.

Sample papers and previous-year board questions for this subject.