Tuesday, 14 April 2015

thermodynamics - Microscopic Definition of Heat and Work


If I am given a statistical system, then I can define state-variables like Energy, Entropy or other observables, and then I can (at least for equilibrium states) give the infinitesimal change of energy as:


$$ d E = T dS + K dx $$


Here x means any observable and K means the depending force, for example if x is the volume $V$, then K is minus the pressure $-p$. What I read all the time is


$$ d E = \delta Q + \delta W $$



Is there a general microscopic way to define what part of the above formula is $\delta W$ and what part is $\delta Q$ ?


For example, for reversible processes, $\delta Q = T dS$ and $\delta W = Kdx$. But what if I'm looking at an arbitrary process?




No comments:

Post a Comment

Understanding Stagnation point in pitot fluid

What is stagnation point in fluid mechanics. At the open end of the pitot tube the velocity of the fluid becomes zero.But that should result...