John Denker (2010) in his Phys-L post "Re: The Abysmal Foundations of
Thermodynamics" wrote:
"To me, thermodynamics is synonymous with statistical mechanics. It
is predicated on being able to count the microstates. I am aware
that classical thermodynamics flourished for many decades before QM
was invented ... but personally I don't understand classical
thermodynamics, certainly not the foundations thereof."
Surely, John must be unaware of Brian Pippard's (1957) classic text
"The Elements of Classical Thermodynamics."
REFERENCES [All URL's shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on
08 December 2010.]
Denker, J. 2010. "Re: The Abysmal Foundations of Thermodynamics,"
Phys-L post of 07 Dec 2010 11:48:32 -070; online on the OPEN! Phys-L
archives at <http://bit.ly/hh2LoM>.
Pippard, A.B. 1957."Elements of Classical Thermodynamics: For
Advanced Students of Physics." Cambridge University Press,
publisher's information at <http://bit.ly/eYLKzM>. Amazon.com
information at <http://amzn.to/eOLnRD>.