Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Notes for chapter 4 for the textbook used in class

This study guide goes over Taylor and MacLaurin series, parametric equations and its different uses, polar equations and its uses along with an introduction to standard vectors

Lecture 13 is the last lecture before exam 2. This is the last of the information that will be covered in this exam. This lecture is really just a big explanation of entropy which we have been learning. The first part of the lecture is spent doing a brief explanation of entropy in regard to the example given in an earlier lecture. The rest of the class is spent doing a PHET simulation which I have available on the second page.

Lecture 12 covers whatever the second law of thermodynamics is. I tried taking as precise notes as possible since the second law is known for being the most complicated. There are examples to show exactly what I mean in my notes. At the end, we cover the Carnot engine which is something that shows up a lot on the exam and is fairly easy to understand.

Lecture 6 covers the last of the information on exam 1. This lecture continues to go into depth the tables we are going to be using for the rest of the course. I recommend getting really conformation with these tables as they hold 90% of the information you need for this course. The rest of the lecture is examples where you must use the table to answer the questions.

Lecture 3 covers homogeneity and how it affects thermodynamics. This lecture also simplifies our base equations further by working through different piston examples. All work and assumptions are shown in my notes.

Lecture 4 continues to go over closed systems and the different values we are going to be using throughout this course. Prof. Olson goes over one word problem, similar to the work needed to do in HW 2, in class.

Lecture 5 covers what a power cycle is in thermodynamics, how to use the tables and the beginnings of the temperature and pressure relationship. The ICA requires students to find the second column of information based on the first column of information.

Lecture 8 is the first lecture after exam 1, we start covering information for exam 2. This lecture covers the relationship between Pressure and Volume as Prof. Olson puts it “The most meaningful, meaningless relationship in thermodynamics”. It also briefly covers the Ideal Gas Law and the Law of Conversation of Energy. I recommend focusing on the Ideal Gas law as it showed up on our exam and most people did not remember it.

Lecture 9 begins our journey into open systems in thermodynamics. Here we cover just how open our systems will be getting and how some of our equations are going to be changing to fit with that.