Thermodynamics Books Recommendations

Question

What's the best books to understand the basic laws of thermodynamics and other things such as enthalpy, Carnot's cycle, entropy, Maxwell equations etc?

Related: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/36288/25301, https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/312422/25301, https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/5614/25301 — Kyle Kanos, Mar 21 '18 at 15:07

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 21 '18 at 15:12

1

I highly recommend Schroeder: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Thermal-Physics-Daniel-Schroeder/dp/0201380277. This book is a nice introduction and provides excellent physical intuition, but it does not skimp on the mathematics as well. It is also fairly self-contained and does not assume more than multivariable calculus and elementary mechanics.

answered Mar 21 '18 at 15:12

Somehow I wouldn't have imagined that the same Schroeder that did the famous introduction to QFT with Peskin had also written on thermodynamics. – Albert Feb 02 '24 at 21:04

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 21 '18 at 17:16

In my judgment, Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics by Moran et al is an excellent book, especially in its coverage of the difficult-to-learn subject of the 2nd law of thermodynamics and entropy. Another good book is Introduction to Engineering Thermodynamics by Smith and Van Ness.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 21 '18 at 17:58

I recommend Cengal and Boles. It is how I learned the basic principles of thermodynamics, and it is a pretty good text for going into the first and second laws, the different ideal cycles (Carnot, Brayton, Otto, Rankine, etc.), as well as refrigeration. Good luck with your studies!

Thermodynamics Books Recommendations

3 Answers3