Re: Thermo of Springs/Sidebar

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

> Well, an ideal spring is ideal; the temperature of a real spring does
> change upon flexing.
>
> But my question is whether there is _any_ example of a macroscopic
> reversible process other than the ideal piston in a cylinder.

Sure. That's why we call the deformation of steel "elastic". The
temperature does change, and it changes back when the deformation
is reversed. There are lots of reversible processes.

> Isn't it odd that the entire basis for classical thermodynamics (or,
> better, thermostatics) is that cylinder.

It is not! The equation of state for an ideal gas system is just
a very simple example which lends itself to lots of examples. The
equation of state for steel would do as well, but it is not quite
so simple as the ideal gas.

Leigh