February 2012
Intermediate to advanced
912 pages
29h 5m
English
Content preview from Introductory Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
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Unit I: First and Second Laws
Aristotle, 384–322 BC
The ancient Greeks thought that there were only four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. As a matter of fact, you can explain a large number of natural phenomena with little more. The first and second laws of thermodynamics can be developed and illustrated quite completely with just solid blocks (earth), ideal gases (air), steam property tables (water), and heat (fire). Without significantly more effort, we can include a number of other “elements”: methane, carbon dioxide, and several refrigerants. These additional species are quite common, and charts that are functionally equivalent to the ...