The definition of temperature in terms of molecular motion suggests that there should be a lowest possible temperature, where the average kinetic energy of molecules is zero (or the minimum allowed by quantum mechanics). Experiments confirm the existence of such a temperature, called absolute zero. An absolute temperature scale is one whose zero point is absolute zero. Such scales are convenient in science because several physical quantities, such as the volume of an ideal gas, are directly...

A mole is defined as the amount of any substance that contains as many molecules as there are atoms in exactly 12 grams of carbon-12. An Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856) formed the  hypothesis that equal volumes of gas at equal pressure and temperature contain equal numbers of molecules, independent of the type of gas. Later, the hypothesis was developed to form the SI unit for measuring the amount of any substance.
The number of molecules in one mole is called...

The second law of thermodynamics can be stated in several different ways, and all of them can be shown to imply the others. The Clausius’ statement of the second law of thermodynamics is based on the irreversibility of spontaneous heat flow. It states that heat will not flow from the colder body to the hotter body unless some other process is involved. Additionally, as per the Kelvin’s statement, it is impossible to convert the heat from a single source into work without any other...

Maxwell's thermodynamic relations are very useful in solving problems in thermodynamics. Each of Maxwell's relations relates a partial differential between quantities that can be hard to measure experimentally to a partial differential between quantities that can be easily measured. These relations are a set of equations derivable from the symmetry of the second derivatives and the thermodynamic potentials.
All thermodynamic potentials are exact differentials. Therefore, their second-order...

The ideal gas equation is an equation of state that relates the state variables pressure, volume, temperature, and the number of moles of a hypothetical gas. This equation is a combination of four empirical laws, namely Boyle’s Law, Charles’s Law, Avogadro’s Law, and Gay-Lussac’s Law. When the proportionalities of the above four empirical laws are combined, it results in a single proportionality constant known as the universal gas constant.

A perfect gas obeys the equation of state pV = nRT. The internal energy of a perfect gas remains unaffected by volume alterations. Therefore, the internal energy of a perfect gas is solely dependent on temperature.Consider an ideal gas enclosed in a cylinder situated within a substantial constant-temperature bath. In an isothermal process, where the temperature remains constant, the change in internal energy equates to zero. Thus, according to the first law of thermodynamics, heat absorbed (q)...