Customer Reviews

Engines, Energy and Entropy: Thermodynamic Primer

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Having made several attempts to understand thermo, ever since first struggling to grasp its concepts in college as an engineering student, and later returning to re-read the college texts as well as Zemansky's Heat and Thermodynamics and Enrico Fermi's remarkable monograph on the subject, I can write that John Fenn has indeed, for me, composed a lucid and fundamental exposition of the subject. I only regret that he continues the tradition of discussing the Carnot cycle in its historical and conventional (and wholly impractical) abstraction, composed of two isothermal and two adiabatic transformations when a truly practical example is available in the Stirling cycle, which, along with the Ericsson cycle, being completely reversible, is also a Carnot cycle. Moreover, contemporary machinery operating on the Stirling cycle can (and has) been built and remains available as commercial working models. Engines based both on the Stirling and Ericsson cycle were in common use at one time pumping well water. Now, while an enduring subject of interest to technologists despite its poor power to weight ratio compared to the (irreversible and non-Carnot) internal combustion engines, Stirling cycle machines can be operated both as an engine and as a refrigerator and therefore serve as a truly realistic embodiment of the heat transfer-to-work/work-to-heat transfer machine upon which a large part of thermodynamics is predicated. An example of a heat reversible machine that can actually be built and run lends much credence to a presentation for those readers, such as this one, always seeking an eminently practical example of an otherwise hypothetical concept. Fenn does discuss heat pumps, a subject not commonly treated in introductory texts and provides a simple analysis that uncovers, even better than the discussion of engines, the magic of combining work with thermal transfer.

Very much to his credit, Professor Fenn does mention in his historical asides that the development of engines (and, for that matter, machinery in general) proceeded without the benefit of much or any theoretical understanding of physics and that the theory of thermodynamics congealed well after inventors Newcomen, Watt, Carnot, Stirling, Ericsson, Otto and Diesel had all left their considerable marks on the material world - an unusual and welcome perspective for engineering readers from an exceptional educator. The discussion also includes the global implications of energy consumption, its actual (1981) values and comparisons with that provided by the Sun. The treatment of entropy, probably the most difficult concept to understand for many students, is the best this reader has encountered.

A general caution here, however. Despite the jacket disclaimers, this book is not for the technically uneducated reader. Its understanding requires a knowledge of algebra and at least a pretty good grasp of high school physics. The author, himself, states that the book can be used as one semester college engineering course in thermo, a recommendation with which this reader enthusiastically agrees. Some knowledge of chemistry and appreciation of technology in general is also helpful. And although Professor Fenn makes gallant and successful attempts to pilot through mathematical obstacles in some computations using only algebra, knowledge of college level calculus is of substantial assistance to the reader at many salient points.

As many of you may or may not know, John Fenn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in December 2002 for his work in ElectroSpray Ionization and its applications to Mass Spectrometry. His sharp wit, knowledge of historical events and sense of humor blend together quite well in this primer on Thermodynamics. What is usually a very dry and "nap inducing" subject, seems to come alive and engage the reader by presenting a new outlook about the inner workings of what we so often have blindly taken for granted in the world of physics and chemistry. One really nice feature of this book is the fact that the earliest discoveries and conclusions formulated throughout history are brought to life as the reader passes form one discovery to the next.

The book is arranged in thirteen well thought out chapters, with sample problems, chapter highlights and reader exercises placed at the end of every chapter to test the reader's comprehension of the material. There are also several appendices designed to "clear the cobwebs" from our memories about forgotten details about subjects such as Logs, Mechanical properties and Units.

You don't have to be a Chemist, Physicist or Mathamatition to understand the material presented in this thermodynamics primer. One aspect of the book that will find the greatest amount of appeal to non-scientific people, is that of Charlie the caveman. This cartoon character runs throughout the entire book struggling to understand basic thermodynamic principles that we take for granted. Charlie even gets himself into trouble with fire breathing dinosaurs now and then.

For those readers who are sure that they understand everything that there is to know on the subject of thermodynamics, they may find themselves pleasantly surprised from time to time, as new insight is revealed, or a previously unknown historical connection is made. I know that I was very surprised at some of the historical connections that were presented.

Basic concepts that we accept without much thought are brought under scrutiny. For example, if I were to ask someone whether it is hot or cold in the room, they would certainly answer one way or the other. I would further ask, how do you quantify that? In fact the second chapter is entitled "How hot is hot?" Without a store bought thermometer, how would you convey the amount of "hotness" of a room? Or "coldness"? How would you explain what temperature is? Why is the scale on your home thermometer marked the way it is? What does the National Institute of Standards use for a temperature reference? What is Count Rumford's real name?

It is questions like these that are addressed in the book; after all, we all know why the Fahrenheit scale is marked the way it is, right? If not, I strongly suggest that you read this book.

In short, I would state that the amount of work needed to understand the book would not consume a great quantity of energy!

Deftly and accessibly written by John B. Fenn (Research Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and the winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry), Engines, Energy, And Entropy: A Thermodynamics Primer is a basic, nontechnical introduction to the laws of physics that draws upon the reader's everyday experience to illustrate and solve simple problems and equations. An excellent, easy-to-follow beginner's resource, superb text for self-instruction or for refreshing an awareness after a few seasons away from campus, Engines, Energy, And Entropy is a suitable for the non-specialist general reader as well as a recommended supplemental reader for chemistry students at the university level.

Thermodynamics is generally perceived as a nightmare by most technical students. Yet, the importance of this discipline cannot be underestimated as it provides a solid foundation upon which the concept of energy can be clearly understood, explained, and put into practicalities.

Since I haven't previously had a formal training in mechanical engineering or related fields, I had to teach myself thermodynamics in order to be able to model dynamic of complex systems which constitutes part of my PhD work and this makes me struggling for some years.

I firstly started with the work of Dr. Morton Mott-Smith (1964) titled "The Concept of Energy Simply Explained" in which, I think, is an excellent primer! I bought Prof. Fenn's book later when I have already had an adequate proficiency in this field. Yet, I still find this work enjoyable to read.

This book is specifically tailored for non-technical readers with minimal skills in Mathematics. Hence, most key concepts are presented descriptively rather than quantitatively. This makes this volume highly readable especially for non-technical readers.

Another point that worths mentioning is Prof. Fenn's creative use of 'Charlie' as a charactor to represent the basic human's experiences in every day life on heat and energy in relation with thermodynamics which can generate sufficient humour to overcome technicality and boost understanding on serious topics.

Whoever you are, and regardless of your academic backgrounds, if you want to explore thermodynamics in a friendly fashion, this is an ideal book to start!

Doy Sundarasaradula, PhD
May 8, 2009

This is a nice little book for someone who wants to understand thermodynamics. Some interesting things like Newton suggested having the human body temperature as a key reference point instead of boiling water. The book is good also for students studying physics and engineering thermodynamics. It is written in a very nice sytle. The author just recently received a Nobel Prize and this adds a little interest to the book written in 1982.

The author of this book is clearly aiming at junior undergraduate students, or people who have not opened many physics textbooks for a long time.
He doesnt suppose you know calculus, in fact he explains the calculus (differential and integral) he uses.
He doesnt even suppose you are very comfortable with Newton's laws of motion.

This makes for a very verbose book, but you can at least be sure that if you work on it you will understand the subject presented, and will have time to build up your intuition, so that Isothermal and Adiabatic expansion will not leave you wondering.

The key word is intuition and this what the book delivers.
Nevertheless thermodynamics is a pretty hard topic, so you will have to work.

There is plenty of humour in this book too.