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 first law of thermodynamics is quantitatively formulated via an equation relating the internal energy of a system, the heat exchanged by it, and the work done on it. A quantitative formulation of the second law of thermodynamics leads to defining a state function, the entropy.
When an ideal gas expands isothermally, the disorder in the gas increases. From the molecular perspective, the gas molecules have more volume to move around in.
Consider an infinitesimal step in the expansion, which...

The second law of thermodynamics can be stated quantitatively using the concept of entropy. Entropy is the measure of disorder of the system.
The relation  between entropy and disorder can be illustrated with the example of the phase change of ice to water. In ice, the molecules are located at specific sites giving a solid state, whereas, in a liquid form, these molecules are much freer to move. The molecular arrangement has therefore become more randomized. Although the change in average...

The thermodynamic processes can be classified into reversible and irreversible processes. The processes that can be restored to their initial state are called reversible processes. It is only possible if the process is in quasi-static equilibrium, i.e., it takes place in infinitesimally small steps, and the system remains at equilibrium However, these are ideal processes and do not occur naturally. An ideal system undergoing a reversible process is always in thermodynamic equilibrium within...

Consider the two thermodynamic processes involving an ideal gas that are represented by paths AC and ABC in Figure 1:

One of the challenges of using the second law of thermodynamics to determine if a process is spontaneous is that it requires measurements of the entropy change for the system and the entropy change for the surroundings. An alternative approach involving a new thermodynamic property defined in terms of system properties only was introduced in the late nineteenth century by American mathematician Josiah Willard Gibbs. This new property is called the Gibbs free energy (G) (or simply the free...