Author: "Alberto Gianinetti"
The second law of thermodynamics is an example of the fundamental laws that govern our universe and is relevant to every branch of science exploring the physical world. This reference summarizes knowledge and concepts about the second law of thermodynamics and entropy. A verbatim explanation of chemical thermodynamics is presented by the author, making this text easy to understand for chemistry students, researchers, non-experts, and educators.
Book Review: An Account of Thermodynamic Entropy by Alberto Gianinetti
The book describes the thermodynamic entropy using basically a verbal presentation
combined with few mathematical expressions that keeps a rigorous scientific approach to
the matter. The essential outlines for a verbal account of thermodynamic entropy are
summarized in the last chapter. The main purpose of the book is to demonstrate from
a rigorous scientific viewpoint the validity of the proposed verbal presentation. Several
examples given by the author illustrate the concept of entropy in its different expressions.
The book consists of twenty one chapters. The first chapter gives basic concepts of
thermodynamics. The second chapter explains the concept of entropy within the context
of classical thermodynamics. The third and fifth chapters discuss two manners to transfer
energy to a system from surroundings, namely, heat and work. The entropy definition
based on reversible processes is described in the fourth chapter. The sixth chapter is
dedicated to the entropy concept from the viewpoint of statistical mechanics. The next
chapter provides explanations about the temperature concept. Spontaneous processes are
considered in the eight chapter. The next four chapters represent some topics of statistical
mechanics. The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters describes spontaneous process from
the microscopic theory. The relation of chemical potential to entropy is discussed in the
fifteenth chapter. The next three chapters contain a discussion about entropy variation
and its maximum in an equilibrium state. Chapters nineteen and twenty explain the
definition of entropy based on quantum theory. Finally, twenty first Chapter is devoted
to pedagogical aspects of thermodynamic entropy.
The book is well written. Since it does not use a hard mathematical formalism, it
can be recommended for students and researchers from non-engineering areas like biology,
medicine, pharmacology etc.
Dr. Felix Sharipov
Departamento de Física
Universidade Federal do Paraná
Paraná, Brazil
