Book Description
This book provides a solid introduction to the classical andstatistical theories of thermodynamics while assuming no background beyond generalphysics and advanced calculus. Though an acquaintance with probability and statistics ishelpful, it is not necessary.Providing a thorough, yet concisetreatment of the phenomenological basis of thermal physics followed by a presentation ofthe statistical theory, this book presupposes no exposure to statistics or quantummechanics. It covers several important topics, including a mathematically soundpresentation of classical thermodynamics; the kinetic theory of gases including transportprocesses; and thorough, modern treatment of the thermodynamics of magnetism. Itincludes up-to-date examples of applications of the statistical theory, such as Bose-Einsteincondensation, population inversions, and white dwarf stars. And, it also includes a chapteron the connection between thermodynamics and information theory. Standard Internationalunits are used throughout. An important reference book for everyprofessional whose work requires and understanding of thermodynamics: from engineersto industrial designers. ÿ ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A great book for the simple stuff
I read this book pretty much cover to cover while preparing for a PhD qualify exam. It's the nicest thermodynamics book I've seen. The fact that I could just sit and read it like a novel was great (I never much liked thermo). Of course, it's also at a very basic level - it doesn't cover canonical or grand canonical formalism at all. But it has the basics of classical and even some quantum stat mech, and a good little bit on information theory.

For those who think it's too basic - come on, it's an undergrad book. Good for a second or third year course. The book description calling it "an important reference book for every professional" is puzzling, since it's not a reference book (not for the professional,anyway). But it is well written.

And it's very much overpriced, so I wouldn't buy it. But check it out from the library.

Good introduction, but that is all
I read Carter's book as a reference to my graduate thermo course.The good thing is, that it is so far the only book I have come across, that covers both classical and statistical thermodynamics equally.You will find that most books that claim to do both (Callen's, for example) are in fact classical thermo texts with some statistical stuff dangling on it.

The downside, is that it is a little too trivial.Having almost no exposure in stat. mech., I still find the exercises a little too easy.Concepts and derivations are spotty at times, and "leaps of faith" are common.Perhaps Carter wanted to spare the student from all the formalism.As a result, I needed a second book (I used Atkins' text on physical chemistry) to supplement my understanding.

I suppose this book aimed for a senior undergrad level.Despite the brevity, I would recommend this book as an introductory book on the "new" thermodynamics.

Not for those new to the subject
We used this book in a undergrad thermo course, it was almost of no use.It covered a fair amount of material, though I have seen books that cover more (Look at the dimensions, it is small and only about 400 pages.)It moved quickly, skipping details, especially in the proofs.I feel it would be a good summary for grad students who have studied thermodynamics before, but there are many better books out there for students seeking a first course.

Useful and challenging book
This is a challenging book to use if you are studying thermodynamics. It is concise; the theory and notation used were well done. There were some formulation mistakes in the Maxwell relations table and other little formulation mistakes. The author uses well known classical and statistical formulae well and good derivations (I liked that). Some of the problem sets were inconsistent with areas covered in a few chapters and some were oversimplified. Overall a decent book to use if your taking statistical thermo. ... Read more

The publisher, John Wiley & Sons
Solutions Manual available. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

very practical
I`m a marine engineering proffesor and lecturer and has been very, very interesant and very practical regarding to modern application.

¿How can i get from yours the solutions manualfrom this book? I Really want toacquire both book and solutions manual?

Kind regards

THE PUBLISHER, JOHN & SONS
SOLUTION TECHNIQUE IN ALL EXAMPLE PROBLE ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

specific and very practical
it has a lot of worked problems, covers every field in thermal and heat tranfer engineering.

¿HOW CAN I GET THE SOLUTIONS MANUAL? ¿HOW MUCH IS THE COST?

I'M A MARINE ENGINEERING, PROFESSOR AND LECTURER

specific and very practical
it has a lot of worked problems, covers every field in thermal and heat tranfer engineering.

¿HOW CAN I GET THE SOLUTIONS MANUAL? ¿HOW MUCH IS THE COST?

I'M A MARINE ENGINEERING, PROFESSOR AND LECTURER

specific and very practical
it has a lot of worked problems, covers every field in thermal and heat tranfer engineering.

¿HOW CAN I GET THE SOLUTIONS MANUAL? ¿HOW MUCH IS THE COST?

I'M A MARINE ENGINEERING, PROFESSOR AND LECTURER

specific and very practical
it has a lot of worked problems, covers every field in thermal and heat tranfer engineering.

¿HOW CAN I GET THE SOLUTIONS MANUAL? ¿HOW MUCH IS THE COST?

I'M A MARINE ENGINEERING, PROFESSOR AND LECTURER ... Read more

Book Description
The series of texts Classical Theoretical Physics is based on the highly successful series of courses given by Walter Greiner and his colleagues at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Intended for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students, the volumes in this series will provide not only a complete survey of classical theoretical physics but also an enormous number of worked examples and problems to show students clearly how to apply the underlying principles to realistic problems. Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics covers: Thermodynamics - basic definitions of thermodynamics, equilibrium, state variables - the first and second laws - phase transitions and chemical reactions - thermodynamic potentials Statistical Mechanics - statistics of microscopic states and connection to the entropy - the microcanonical, canonical and grand canonical ensembles - applications of Boltzmann statistics Quantum Statistics - the density operator - many-particle wave functions - ideal quantum systems - the ideal Bose gas and applications to blackbody radiation, Kirchhoff's law, and lattice vibrations - the ideal Fermi gas and applications to condensed-matter physics, astrophysics, and nuclear physics - relativistic Bose and Fermi gases and applications to particle physics Real Gases and Phase Transitions - real gases and the virial expansion - classification of phase transitions and critical indices - the Ising and Heisenberg models ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great graduate level text
A really good graduate level text that was useful as a supplement for my stat mech class. Lots of worked examples, would be great for self study also. Greiner's field theory book is a good one too.

Good standard textbook, many examples, good for beginners to the field
This book is typical for all books of the Greiner series.
It contains lots of solved sample problems scattered throughout the text. It has a readable, nice style but there are many unnecessary typing errors. All in all this is a readable book for beginners but nothing special.

No References and Many Careless Typos
A slightly better graduate text is that by Pathria which is in its second edition. It is fairly clear that Greiner has borrowed heavily from Pathria's approach. Greiner's book is more comfortable to look at and read though.

Greiner does not include a single reference in this book. I would like to point out that if this were an article submitted to a scientific journal, it would be rejected out of hand for this egregious lack of attribution. This is particularly bothersome with regard to comparing experiment with theory. Mr. Bromley, who wrote the preface, states that these comparisons are a plus for the book. While true, this is hardly unique. Every stat mech book I have quotes experimental results, but the others also cite the reference to the original work. This gives students (and teachers) the ability to look at the experimental work and to get the data for themselves, and it gives credit to those who did the work.

What could have been a much better text is marred by too many typos and references to incorrect equation numbers. As well, I find that some "derivations", again contrary to a statement by Bromley, are of the "it can be seen that" variety, which is odd in a text which does go into some detail on many things, e.g. the derivation of the partition function for an ideal gas in the microcanonical ensemble. An example of a non-derivation is given in the discussion that follows eqn 7.67 which arbitrarily splits the velocity distribution into 3 multiplicative pieces. Since the big new thing for a student in this subject is the use of probability, it would have been much more appropriate to find the one-dimensional velocity distribution by integrating the 3d distribution over two of the components. There are other places in the book where the author fails to use this approach. Students find this confusing, I find it inconsistent. As it stands, the formula is correct, but there is not even a hint that it should be derived or questioned.

I found the discussion of the purely classical derivation, the semiclassical derivation, and the quantum derivation of various quantities such as the IG partition function to be a bit confusing at times particularly when the Gibbs factor and the quantum correction h^3N were involved, perhaps it is just me. I would find it better if each derivation were given separately with a summary at the end. This would be more helpful, since some of the later derivations, e.g. Maxwell-Boltzmann are essentially classical in nature and could be arrived at from any of the formulas.

On the other hand I found Chapter 12 on the Grand Canonical Ensemble to be excellent, especially the discussion of the distribution of occupation numbers on p. 308ff, an important topic that is not often discussed in Stat Mech books.

All in all, though, this would be good book with a little more care and with an appropriate reference list. If you get it, pay attention as you read it.

Wow.
All I can say is that I wish this text had been used in my graduate statistical physics class.The thorough explainations and derivations are very helpful and the extensive examples are priceless for students new to the subject.

Excellent thermodynamics, statistical mechanics text.
The way this textbook covers the topic is excellent and its practice problems are perfect.This book deserves the equivalent respect of Landau's series.My only regret is its problem in English translation. ... Read more

Book Description
The laws of thermodynamics are amongst the most assured and wide-ranging of all scientific laws. They do not pretend to explain any observation in molecular terms but, by showing the necessary relationships between different physical properties, they reduce otherwise disconnected results to compact order, and predict new effects. This classic title, first published in 1957, is a systematic exposition of principles, with examples of applications, especially to changes of places and the conditions for stability. In all this entropy is a key concept. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pretty good in places
I used this book (as one of several) while teaching undergrad. thermo in the seventies and eighties. In particular, I liked the simple discussion of the second law as the reason for the reversible ordering of water into ice at the freezing temperature. ... Read more

Book Description
Presents a comprehensive and rigorous treatment of thermodynamics while retaining an engineering perspective and, in so doing, provides a resource with considerable flexibility for the inclusion of material on thermodynamics. Updated for this Third Edition, it reflects an increased emphasis on environmental issues and a recognition of the steadily growing use of computers in the study of thermodynamics and solution of thermodynamic problems. Contains numerous examples, as well as problems at the end of each chapter that are carefully sequenced to reflect the subject matter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good reference
I like this book as a reference/review, perhaps as a companion to other subject material.It doesn't have a lot or worked examples and so can't really be thought of as an introductory tutorial.It is very thorough and provides a moderately deep overview of the subject.Undergrad engineering math is a prereq for understanding the book.It is very expensive as a new book; however, in used form I think it is well worth the price (at just a fraction of the new price).

Good reference book, but a horrible textbook
This book is currently used in my Engineering Thermodynamics course, and is due to be phased out in favor of another textbook beginning in 2004.The authors of this text, Dr. Sonntag and Dr. Van Wylen, seem to know their stuff; however, they have not done a good job of writing a textbook that a typical engineering student can learn from.

The entire book is black and white text, with a few mediocre drawings, and a minimal number of worked example problems--some chapters do not have a single example problem.The few example problems that are given are usually solved by skipping most of the critical steps.The authors seem to assume that readers will be doing most of the complex calculations in their heads.

What is most annoying, however, is that for many of the book's end-of-chapter problems, the authors have not shown how to solve them anywhere within the chapter.Once again, the authors may have assumed that only geniuses would be reading their text and that they should be able to derive the necessary equations completely unaided by sample problems, illustrations, or other learning aids.

In short, I feel sorry for any full-time student who is forced to learn thermodynamics from this textbook.

For learning thermodynamics, I think "Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics" by Michael Moran and Howard Shapiro is a much better choice.It has plenty of explanatory graphs and illustrations (in color even), as well as numerous worked examples.Dr. Sonntag and Dr. Van Wylen, are you paying attention?

I give this book 2 stars overall.
As a reference book, I give it 4 stars.
As a book to learn thermodynamics from, I give it 1 star.

The Best of Ternodynamics
Is a book wich explain detaily, all the laws on termodynamics, has a very good examples and excercises. Another issue, it works on International systems Units, and is very good because the world is changingfor usingthat units on all the industries, it has conversion factor forEnglish andmetrics units. I recommend it as the best book for the begining onTermodynamic studies. ... Read more

Book Description
A comprehensive introduction to this important subject, presenting the fundamentals of classical and statistical thermodynamics through carefully developed concepts which are supported by many examples and applications.
* Each chapter includes numerous carefully worked out examples and problems
* Takes a more applied approach rather than theoretical
* Necessary mathematics is left simple
* Accessible to those fairly new to the subject ... Read more

Book Description
Sophmore or junior engineering students will appreciate this in-depth analysis of the fundamentals of thermodynamics.The text notes common student problem areas such as definition of systems boundary, units, processes, work and heat.A review of energy resource consumption shows the importance of energy resources to the economy and emphasizes thermodynamic analysis.The systematic approach to solving thermodynamic problems is supported by numerous chapter-end problems graded in three levels of difficulty.Open-ended design problems are included in chapters 10-15 to reflect the increasing emphasis on the need for design in core courses.Extensive treatment of second law analyses, including exergy analysis/energy availability, helps students understand real systems.Explanation of how to maximize energy delivery from chemical reactions presents a solid background in improving the design of reacting systems.Accompanying Thermo-Props software saves students time in looking up values from ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Overview
This book is excellent textbook for obtaining a broad overview and a firm grasp of a difficult topic. I recommend it to professors of undergraduate students. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents a comprehensive and rigorous treatment of thermodynamics while retaining an engineering perspective and, in so doing, provides a resource with considerable flexibility for the inclusion of material on thermodynamics. Updated for this Third Edition, it reflects an increased emphasis on environmental issues and a recognition of the steadily growing use of computers in the study of thermodynamics and solution of thermodynamic problems. Contains numerous examples, as well as problems at the end of each chapter that are carefully sequenced to reflect the subject matter. ... Read more