This is the first lecture from the Rotman Summer Institute on Foundations of Statistical Mechanics from July 14-20, 2013. More will follow at the rate of approximately one per week.
In this introductory lecture, Wayne Myrvold discusses thermodynamics. He introduces the theory without presupposing the molecular theory of matter or that thermodynamic systems can be treated as mechanical systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom. He discusses five laws of thermodynamics: the minus first law, the zeroth law, the first law, the second law, and the third law. He also discusses ideal gases, temperature, entropy, and other basic thermodynamic concepts. He aims to highlight and clarify the logical relations that hold between important thermodynamic concepts.
Notes related to the talk are here.
Slides from the talk are here.
Thanks to Josh Luczak for editing the video, and writing the above precis of the lecture.
