Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  • Cited by 23
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
September 2014
Print publication year:
2013
Online ISBN:
9780511984556

Book description

Striving to explore the subject in as simple a manner as possible, this book helps readers understand the elusive concept of entropy. Innovative aspects of the book include the construction of statistical entropy from desired properties, the derivation of the entropy of classical systems from purely classical assumptions, and a statistical thermodynamics approach to the ideal Fermi and ideal Bose gases. Derivations are worked through step-by-step and important applications are highlighted in over 20 worked examples. Around 50 end-of-chapter exercises test readers' understanding. The book also features a glossary giving definitions for all essential terms, a time line showing important developments, and list of books for further study. It is an ideal supplement to undergraduate courses in physics, engineering, chemistry and mathematics.

Reviews

'In A Student’s Guide to Entropy, Don Lemons conveys both mathematical and physical intuition of entropy … [he] is very thorough, clear, and succinct in his explanations, making sure that no subtlety is left unnoticed or unaccounted for. The reader feels that he/she is being taught and guided by an experienced teacher of thermodynamics and entropy … This book will be essential not only to students but also to faculty who are charged with the difficult task of teaching a subject that involves entropy … a thorough, self-contained guide to entropy for students and teachers.'

Effrosyni Seitaridou Source: American Journal of Physics

'The book is well written … Highly recommended.'

Source: Choice

'… a truly first-rate book on the subject, and I would happily recommend it as the main (and inexpensive) text for a course of statistical mechanics.'

Source: The Observatory

'A Student's Guide to Entropy is an excellent textbook for undergraduate students and early stage graduate students in physics and engineering. … Each concept is well defined - mathematical derivation of theories is rigorous and proceeds from fundamental notions to their final form in a methodical, step-by-step manner. The physical meaning of these equations is then explained in simple words, which is perhaps the most impressive feature of this book.'

Prashant Khare Source: Contemporary Physics

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
×

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.