Thermodynamics 1 - Ideal Gases

This is the first video in the Thermodynamics sequence. We derive the ideal gas law in a heuristic way and state the equipartition theorem. It's important to have a good grasp of ideal gases before moving on. The ideal gas serves as an example for most of the concepts of thermodynamics, and most of my videos on thermodynamics will rely on the picture of an ideal gas presented here.

In this video we take the (correct) point of view that gases are made up of many molecules, and we use that fact to derive and explain the ideal gas properties. Historically speaking, thermodynamics was invented before people knew/accepted that molecules existed. In particular, here we come across the concept of temperature, which everyone has some experience with. We define temperature in terms of the kinetic energy of the molecules in our gas. This is the "modern" point of view; for a long time temperature was just an abstract property that the system somehow possessed. In these videos we will always strive to give the molecular description of thermodynamics.

This video is part of a series on introductory topics in physics. The target audience is beginning college students who have already had one semester of Newtonian Mechanics.

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Category:

Education

Tags:

• physics
• thermodynamics
• ideal
• gas
• statistical
• mechanics
• introduction
• lecture
• review

[euphoriamorninguk]

Fantastic video and well explained, keep up the great work!

[mannu80545]

i like it

[SicdLing]

Thanks for the tutorial, it helps me a lot. My teacher explained in a very confusing way that i don't even know what she is talking.

[MidStyx]

the tutorial is awesome but a little problem on certain topic bcz i didn't understand. anyway Thanks the video is really an informative one!

[BrokenAeroVT]

My statement should read "...typically contains ~on the order of~ 10^23 molecules..."

[BrokenAeroVT]

A laboratory sized vessel, approximately 1 cubic ft in size typically contains 10^23 molecules of most gasses at STP. The graduate student and teacher could have been a little more clear as to what he was refering to, but it's clear to me by inference he was just trying to give an idea of the order of molecules present in most STP laboratory situations.

[harpsichord1]

I don't think you should have said 10^23 is a typical number, as you are just referring to Avagadro's Number in general, which is also the amount of molecules/atoms in 1 mole of gas. A container can contain any amount of gas, totally dependant on the volume and pressure.

Great tutorial though. Keep it up.