PHY 1321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Melting, Thermometer

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Physics
• Course: PHY 1321
• Professor: Andrzej Czajkowski

Document Summary

State variable: is an element of the set of variables that describes the state of a dynamical system. If objects a and b are separately in thermal equilibrium with a third major object c, then a and b are in thermal equilibrium. Macroscopic attributable to a large ensemble of atoms/mol. Mechanics finding state variables of microscopic variables that describes an average single molecule: went from knowing just (r, v) to knowing (p, t, Our senses provide us with a qualitative indication of temp. We associate temp. with how hot / cold an object feels : this is an inaccurate way to establish temp, touching a wood bar vs. a metal bar @ the same temp feel different. * our senses are unreliable for this purpose, so we need a technical definition of temp. Temperature: the property that determines whether an object is in thermal equilibrium with other objects. Two objects in thermal equilibrium have the same temp.