The Scientific Papers of J. Willard Gibbs, Vol. 1: Thermodynamics [Paperback]

J. Willard Gibbs (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: Ox Bow Pr (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0918024773
• ISBN-13: 978-0918024770
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #462,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thermodynamics - the Gibbs way, August 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Scientific Papers of J. Willard Gibbs, Vol. 1: Thermodynamics (Paperback)

Thermodynamics can be a difficult subject to master because it is presented in different ways in different disciplines. For example, the terminology and symbols used by mechanical engineers are often different from those used by physical chemists, and so on. The papers by Gibbs contained in this book, represent the foundation of the thermodynamics of mixtures. These are some of the greatest scientific papers ever written. The papers contain a comprehensive treatment of equilibrium thermodynamics and include more advanced treatments, e.g. strained solids, capillarity, electrical forces, etc.

After reading this book, I realised that much of what has been printed in modern texts often starts out with an approximation but the reader is not told that it is an approximation. This leads to confusion. In the Gibbs work, the reader is always aware of the approximations involved. For example, Gibbs built his themodynamics by starting with the simplest assumtpions, and then successively adding detail. Much of what is reported in modern texts is based on the initial assumption and ignores the later detail. For example, modern texts usually 'gloss-over' the study of capillarity. One would conclude from that treatment that Gibbs perhaps did no work on capillarity. However, on the contrary, Gibbs gave a very comprehensive (and remarkable) treatment of capillarity.

The papers in the book are at times hard to read, because they use follow a strict mathematical logic, and because Gibbs often says " it follows that ...". In many cases, it was not obvious to me how "it followed that ...". Nevertheless, this is a must-read for anyone interested in thermodynamics, and the Gibbs treatment is usually clearer than that given in modern texts.

Thoroughly recommended, and this book is now my prime reference on thermodynamics.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gibbs's important but obscure masterpiece, August 21, 1999

By 

Dr David J Bottomley - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Scientific Papers of J. Willard Gibbs, Vol. 1: Thermodynamics (Paperback)

This is a reprint of his original papers which cement the mathematical foundations of thermodynamics. Gibbs's work is a work of genius, but this book is an extremely challenging read. Writing in viscous 19th century prose, Gibbs is never one to use a sentence where a paragraph will do. Very few non-native English speakers who are experts in thermodynamics have the ability in English to read this from cover-to-cover. The questions one is left asking are 'Has the difficulty of this text slowed the further development of thermodynamics? Would any errors in Gibbs's work be spotted swiftly?' My answers to these questions are 'Yes,' and 'No,' respectively. Anyone who hopes to make advances in the fundamental theory or interpretation of thermodynamics (assuming, contrary to current dogma, that such advances can be made) needs to read the majority of this book.

Some of my views on thermodynamics are given in: D. J. Bottomley, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. Part 2, vol. 36, L1464 (1997).

4.0 out of 5 stars A Scientic Masterpiece and a Literary Disaster, July 22, 2011

By 

[e-mail] - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Scientific Papers of J. Willard Gibbs, Vol. 1: Thermodynamics (Paperback)

This research in this monograph is among the greatest theoretical physics of the 19'th century. It's impact has been tremendous, even outside physics and chemistry. Gibbs approach to equilibrium --maximize S and minimize E,H,A, and G and is now the cornerstone of field of Chemical Thermodynamics, a field which he created in this book. He also invented A and G and greatly expanded the interpretations of H and E, yielding the general structure of thermodynamics. Gibbs' chemical potential is now a household word. He generalized thermodynamics to processes for which mole numbers change (the main motivation for his work). This opened the way to systematic and unified treatments(based on Gibbs chemical potential balance equations)of,for example, major phenomena in chemistry like chemical, phase, and solubility equilibria. Gibbs ensemble concept, which is an extension of his formulation of thermodynamics, is now the foundation of the more advanced field of statistical mechanics. And there is so so much more. l

However the book reminds me of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Namely, it is the most awfully written and incomprehensible scientific work I have ever encountered. If you don't believe me just give it a try. For example, it features such "treats" as 100 word sentences. But its verbosity gives anything but detailed clarifying explanations. It is just horrible writing which only enhances the obscurity of an otherwise incomprehensible text.

I have been working on it off and on for two years. I still only understand ~ 25% in detail,and even for this small part there are still aspects of some derivations which I don't understand completely.

Willard Gibbs, why did you do to this to us?