Seeking to explain physical phenomena based on the atomic theory of matter
I started this thermodynamics website back in 2020 right after the launch of my book, Block by Block: The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics. Since then I’ve published over 100 posts. Here are the Top 10 most viewed. 2. How did Galileo measure time? 3. The Machinery Underneath (my 2nd book; work in progress) […]
I just completed Section 4 – The Physical Meaning of Thermodynamic Properties of my continually evolving book, The Machinery Underneath, and wanted to share the new material here. As this is a work-in-progress, I embrace the theme of continuous improvement and so welcome your feedback. Here is the table of contents. The new (linked) chapters […]
Back in 2006, Tom Archibald, VP, Director of Operations and Engineering for the Rohm and Haas Company, shared with our new hires his Top 10 list of behaviors to achieve a successful career. Tom built this list based on his own experiences and had shared it often. I just came across this list while cleaning […]
I just completed Chapter 9 of my continually evolving book, The Machinery Underneath, and wanted to share the new material here. As this is a work-in-progress, I embrace the theme of continuous improvement and so welcome your feedback. Here is the table of contents. The new chapters are 6 – 9. Table of Contents Preface […]
As part of the lead-up to our 2016 Centennial Celebration of MIT’s School of Chemical Engineering Practice—affectionately known as “The Practice School”—we interviewed alumni from across the decades and produced a series of short videos exploring a range of topics. In this video, [link here], Carl Bozzuto, now with Electric Utility Consultants, shares his thoughts […]
As shared here and here, I’ve begun writing my 2nd thermodynamics book, The Machinery Underneath, in which I will connect the micro-world of moving and interacting atoms to the macro-world of thermodynamic phenomena and the classical equations used to describe them. I will publish each chapter as I complete it. At 66 years of age (and counting), […]
The following is an excerpt from the final chapter of my book, Block by Block – The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics, in which I took a step back to share a few insights and observations I unexpectedly gathered along the way. Happy the man, who, studying nature’s laws, Thro’ known effects can trace […]
I took a course from Edward Tufte a long while ago on the visual display of information and loved it. He challenged us to design single illustrations to tell our story, using the classic illustration (here) of Napoleon’s march to Moscow as a great example. I took on this challenge in creating illustrations for Block […]
In his Physical Chemistry book (6th Edition, p. 99), Peter Atkins wrote that entropy “is a measure of the molecular disorder of a system.” Other references contain similar statements that connect entropy with disorder. I see things differently. The appearance of structure in large systems of colliding atoms Assume a system of a trillion atoms […]
If a great many equal spherical particles were in motion in a perfectly elastic vessel, collisions would take place among the particles, and their velocities would be altered at every collision; so that after a certain time the vis viva [kinetic energy] will be divided among the particles according to some regular law. – James […]