Practical programme
Experiments
The programme runs in the order below. Each experiment lists the syllabus topics it covers and the number of three-hour sessions it is designed to fill. You can work on them in any order, but the later ones assume the error analysis you practised in the earlier ones.
- Station 11 session2 parts
The Zeroth Law and the Ideal-Gas Temperature Scale
Establish a thermodynamic temperature scale with a constant-volume gas thermometer.
- Statement of the zeroth law
- The Kelvin temperature scale
- Station 22 sessions4 parts
The First Law: Work, Heat and the Ratio of Heat Capacities
Isothermal and adiabatic changes in an ideal gas, and three determinations of gamma.
- Heat, work and internal energy
- Statement of the first law of thermodynamics
- Special cases of the first law of thermodynamics
- Heat capacity at constant volume and constant pressure
- Isothermal and adiabatic changes for ideal gas
- Station 32 sessions4 parts
Calorimetry: Heat Capacity, Latent Heat and Entropy Change
The method of mixtures, with a proper cooling correction, and the entropy generated by irreversible heat flow.
- Heat, work and internal energy
- Heat capacity at constant volume and constant pressure
- Measuring entropy and entropy changes
- Entropy and latent heat
- The principle of increasing entropy
- Station 42 sessions3 parts
The Second Law: Heat Engines, the Carnot Cycle and Efficiency
Indicator diagrams, the Carnot limit, and why a real engine is most powerful well below it.
- Heat engines and the second law of thermodynamics
- Carnot's cycle and theorem
- Station 52 sessions4 parts
Entropy, Irreversibility and the Principle of Increasing Entropy
Free expansion, reversible expansion, mixing and the degradation of work.
- Concept of entropy
- Measuring entropy and entropy changes
- Entropy of an ideal gas
- The principle of increasing entropy
- Station 62 sessions3 parts
Thermodynamic Potentials, the Gibbs Function and the Clausius-Clapeyron Equation
Vapour pressure, latent heat, Trouton's rule and why ice melts under pressure.
- Thermodynamic potentials: internal energy, enthalpy, Helmholtz function and Gibb's function
- Application of Gibb's function to phase changes and Clausius-Clapeyron equation
- Helmholtz and Gibb's free energy
- Station 72 sessions3 parts
The Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution of Molecular Speeds
A rotating-drum beam experiment, a velocity selector, and Boltzmann's H-theorem.
- Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution
- Boltzmann statistics and distribution
- Entropy, probability and disorder - the Boltzmann relation
- Station 82 sessions2 parts
Heat Capacity of Solids: the Einstein and Debye Theories, and the Third Law
From the Dulong-Petit limit to the T-cubed law, and the entropy that vanishes at absolute zero.
- Einstein's and Debye's theory of heat capacity of a solid
- Statements of the third law of thermodynamics
- Microscopic and Simon formulation of the third law
- Consequences of the third law
- Quantum states and energy levels
- Density of quantum states
- Station 92 sessions3 parts
Blackbody Radiation and Bose-Einstein Statistics
Planck's law, Wien's displacement law, the Stefan-Boltzmann law, and h and k from a single spectrum.
- Bose-Einstein distribution
- Density of quantum states
- Quantum states and energy levels
- Station 102 sessions3 parts
Fermi-Dirac Statistics: Thermionic Emission from a Metal
The Richardson-Dushman law, the work function, and the space-charge limit.
- The Fermi-Dirac distribution
- Quantum states and energy levels
- Density of quantum states
- Station 111 session3 parts
Joule-Thomson Expansion and the Maxwell Relations
Throttling, inversion temperatures, and a direct test of a Maxwell relation.
- Maxwell's relations
- Application of Maxwell's relations
- Thermodynamic potentials: internal energy, enthalpy, Helmholtz function and Gibb's function