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I don't disagree with what John Denker has said. But Ialso think we
have to realize how entrenched classical thermodynamicsis/was in
chemistry academia. There are still chemists teachingclassical
thermodynamics (delta-S =3D Q/T). I teach physcialchemistry at Bluf=
ftonabout 1990. Wh=
College and I did not stop teaching it that way until
y,were going to
because we knew that standardized tests such as the GRE
expect chemistry graduates to know the old approach.statistical
The physicists were much quicker to move toward the
thermodynamics approach than the chemists. I had theunpleasant
situation of trying to teach statistical thermodynamics tophysics
students and teaching classical thermodynamics tochemistry students.
Finally, about 1990, I merged the two courses into onecourse and
abandoned the classical approach altogether. For a whilethis meant =
Ithermal phys=
could not use a physical chemistry text and had to use a
icsusing the
text. This made the chemists angry. Recently I have been
text Thermal Physics by Daniel Schroeder because heincludes more
chemistry than most thermal physics authors.temperature in te=
Also, while Denker is correct that we should define
rmsthermodynamicist reall=
of entropy, we need to remember that classical
ytemperature
did do it the other way. The early guys all "knew" what
was, but did not know statistical thermodynamics.Therefore, when
trying to make sense out of why something happened the wayit did, th=
eythat became
eventually came up with this Q/T idea that worked. Once
established it might be that the "if it works, don't' fixit" attitud=
eway more
became pretty strong.
Whatever the reason, the idea that delta-S is Q/T is still
prevalent in chemistry than it should be.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu