Re: [Phys-l] The Abysmal Foundations of Thermodynamics

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 12/07/2010 12:32 AM, Derek McKenzie wrote:

> I recently came across a text that is incredibly thorough in intent,
> but which differs so much from convention that I'm not sure if I can
> trust it or not. It's called 'Thermodynamics - Foundations and
> Applications' by Elias P. Gyftopoulos and Gian Paolo Beretta. I'd be
> very interested in hearing what any of you have to say about that
> work.

You can't trust it.

Let me quote an all-too-typical snippet from a paper by Beretta:
  http://dimgruppi.ing.unibs.it/fisica_tecnica/quantumthermodynamics/WebSite1.pdf

> > the Keenan school at MIT has emphasized that the essence of the
> > second law of Thermodynamics is a statement of existence and
> > uniqueness of the stable equilibrium states of a system. The
> > recognition of the central role that stability plays in
> > Thermodynamics is perhaps one of the most fundamental discoveries
> > of the physics of the last four decades,

1) These guys consider themselves the embodiment of the "Keenan school"
 or the "MIT school" of thermodynamics.  They are calling themselves a 
 school in the same sense that there was a "Venetian school" of painting.

 I never knew that thermodynamics had schools or movements of this 
 kind, or that it needed them.

2) Raise your hand if you think it is important to emphasize the 
 existence and uniqueness of stable equilibrium states.

 Hint:  Consider a spin system with an odd number of spins.  There
 cannot possibly be a unique maximum entropy state.

3) Raise your hand if you think this is one of the most fundamental
 discoveries of the last four decades.

These guys are associated with the engineering department at MIT.
They boast that their mentor, Keenan, introduced the methods of
Gibbs into the engineering curriculum ... in 1940.  I always say
better late than never.  Hint:  Gibbs's classic textbook was
published in 1902.  

Actually, Keenan was a serious guy.  I even own a copy of his 
_Steam Tables_.  There is however a cognitive dissonance.  At about 
the same time (1934) Richard Chace Tolman put out the book we mentioned
yesterday:  _Relativity, Cosmology, and Thermodynamics_.  Let's just 
say that Tolman and Keenan had very different ideas about where the 
frontier of thermodynamics was to be found.

Gyftopoulos and Beretta are not in the same league as Keenan.
Evidently they don't talk to the physicists, and the physicists 
don't talk to them.  They claim to have rebuilt all of thermodynamics
on new and more rigorous foundations ... but they have not actually
done anything of the sort.

A while back they held a conference so that they and other folks 
in their "school" could opine about the meaning of entropy.  I 
watched the video, mostly out of morbid curiosity.  It started 
out embarrassing and rapidly got worse and worse and worse.