100 Best Thermodynamics Books of All Time
We've researched and ranked the best thermodynamics books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more
"The whole thing was basically an experiment," Richard Feynman said late in his career, looking back on the origins of his lectures. The experiment turned out to be hugely successful, spawning a book that has remained a definitive introduction to physics for decades. Ranging from the most basic principles of Newtonian physics through such formidable theories as general relativity and quantum mechanics, Feynman's lectures stand as a monument of clear exposition and deep insight. Now, we are reintroducing the... more
Bill GatesYou don't have to take a course [to learn physics]. If you're hardcore, read the Feynman book and do the problems. (Source)
David BainbridgeI think that he is one of the most intelligent people to live in the 20th century. Yet at the same time, surprisingly, he is an amazingly good teacher. This is quite an unusual combination. (Source)
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Richard BransonElon Musk is a man after my own heart: a risk taker undaunted by setbacks and ever driven to ensure a bright future for humanity. Ashlee Vance's stellar biography captures Musk's remarkable life story and irrepressible spirit. (Source)
Casey NeistatI'm fascinated by Elon Musk, I own a Tesla, I read Ashlee Vance's biography on Elon Musk. I think he's a very interesting charachter. (Source)
Roxana BitoleanuA business book I would definitely choose the biography of Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance, because of Elon's strong, even extreme ambition to radically change the world, which I find very inspiring. (Source)
Bill GatesYou don't have to take a course [to learn physics]. If you're hardcore, read the Feynman book and do the problems. (Source)
Partial contents: thermodynamic systems, the first law of thermodynamics (application, adiabatic transformations), the second law of thermodynamics (Carnot cycle, absolute thermodynamic temperature, thermal engines),... more
The book begins at the simplest level, develops the basics, and... more
Based on Planck's original papers, the book offers a uniform point of view for the entire field. Rejecting the earlier approaches of Helmholtz and Maxwell, Planck makes no assumptions regarding the nature of heat, but begins with only a few empirical facts from which he deduces new physical and chemical... more
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Chris YoungOne of the books that Chris has found himself gifting a lot is an out-of-print book on thermodynamics called The Second Law. "It was written by an Oxfod physical chemistry professor named P. W. Atkins. That book is just a phenomenal, casual, infographic-laden read on how the world works from an energy perspective. I found that so incredibly useful in trying to understand how to do something, how... (Source)
William Rosen, author of Justinian's Flea, seeks to answer these questions and more with The Most Powerful Idea in the World. A lively and passionate study of the engineering and scientific breakthroughs that led to the steam engine, this book argues that the very notion of intellectual property drove not only the invention of the... more
Bill GatesI just finished reading The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry and Invention by William Rosen. It focuses on the Industrial Revolution basically from the Newcomen atmospheric engine in 1712 to the Stephen Rocket Locomotive in 1850. It does a great job of explaining how thousands of innovations were driven during this period by many elements coming together: increased... (Source)
The EGM field has experienced tremendous growth during the 1980s and 1990s. This book places EGM's growth in perspective by reviewing both sides of the field - engineering and... more
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Written in a clear and reader-friendly style, the book gives an excellent introduction to the subject for novices. It should be useful to those who want to develop their understanding... more
Don't have time to read the top Thermodynamics books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
-Tobin R. Sosnick, Professor and Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago
"Presents both the concepts and equations associated with statistical thermodynamics in a unique way that is at visual, intuitive, and rigorous. This approach will greatly benefit students at all levels." more
Don't have time to read the top Thermodynamics books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Heat, like gravity, shapes nearly every aspect of our world and universe, from how milk dissolves in coffee to how molten planets cool. The heat equation, a cornerstone of modern physics, demystifies such processes, painting a mathematical picture of the way heat diffuses through matter. Presenting the mathematics and history behind the heat equation, Hot Molecules, Cold Electrons tells the remarkable story of how a... more
Theories of macroscopic irreversible processes must strictly conform to the thermodynamic laws at every step and... more
Chemistry: A Molecular Approach/i, this text follows a similar path by first
covering the principles of quantum mechanics before engaging those ideas in
the subsequent development of thermodynamics. Although many of the chapters
in iMolecular Thermodynamics/i are similar to chapters in the physical
chemistry text, new material has been added throughout along with three
entirely new chapters. The text includes five short "MathChapters," each
with a special set of problems that will help... more
Belgian philosopher Isabelle Stengers and Ilya Prigogine, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1977 for his work on the thermodynamics of non-equilibrium systems, make their ideas accessible to a wide audience in this book, which has engendered massive debate in Europe and America. Stengers and Prigogine show how the two great themes of classic science, order and chaos, which coexisted uneasily for centuries, are being reconciled in a new and unexpected synthesis.
lessDon't have time to read the top Thermodynamics books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
In Why Information Grows, Hidalgo combines the seemingly disparate fields of economic development and physics to present this new rubric for economic growth. He believes that we should investigate what makes some countries more capable than others. Complex products—from films to robots, apps... more
The Cosmic Machine takes you from the earliest scientific inquiries in human history on an exciting journey in search of the answers to these questions. In telling this fascinating story of science, the reader is masterfully guided through the wonderment of how scientific discoveries (and the key players of those... more
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Don't have time to read the top Thermodynamics books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
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First developed... more
It has been 140 years since Clausius coined the term entropy ; almost 50 years since Shannon developed the mathematical theory of...
moreThe text lays the groundwork for subsequent studies in fields such as fluid mechanics, heat transfer and statistical thermodynamics, and prepares... more
Don't have time to read the top Thermodynamics books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
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- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
In "Life's Ratchet," physicist Peter M. Hoffmann locates the answer to this age-old question at the nanoscale. The complex molecules of our cells can rightfully be called "molecular machines," or "nanobots"; these machines, unlike any other, work autonomously to create order out of chaos. Tiny... more
Thousands of important equations and methods are shown and explained throughout the Reference Manual, plus hundreds of examples with detailed solutions demonstrate how to use these equations to correctly solve problems on the mechanical PE exam. Dozens of key charts, tables, and graphs, including updated steam... more
Wallace and Hobbs’ original edition of Atmospheric Science helped define the field nearly 30 years ago, and has served as the cornerstone for most university curriculums. Now students and professionals alike can use this updated classic to understand atmospheric phenomena in the context of the latest discoveries and technologies, and prepare themselves for more advanced study and real-life problem solving.
Atmospheric Science, Second Edition, has been completely revamped in terms of content and appearance. It contains new chapters on atmospheric chemistry, the Earth...
moreThe book reviews current directions in a field that is both... more
Don't have time to read the top Thermodynamics books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
NOW AVAILABLE IN SPLIT VOLUMES
For maximum flexibility in your physical chemistry course, this text is
now offered as a traditional or in two volumes.
• Volume 1: Thermodynamics and Kinetics (ISBN... more
This comprehensive text, suitable for introductory as well as advanced courses on thermodynamics, has been widely used by chemists, physicists, engineers and geologists. Fully revised and expanded, this new edition includes the following... more
Adam... more
Mike Shellenberger@NitramNosirrag @Forbes Tell you what. Go read the best book on the subject, Critical Masses. Then come back and tell me if you think my characterization of the best-available history is wrong. Okay? Otherwise, by not discussing the evidence, you are trolling https://t.co/ApiSbhamy6 (Source)
In a discussion that brings together the history of science with the philosophy of science,... more
Thermodynamics in Materials Science, Second Edition is a clear presentation of how thermodynamic data is used to predict the behavior of a wide range of materials, a crucial component in the decision-making process for many materials science and engineering applications. This primary textbook and ongoing reference accentuates the integration of principles, strategies, and thermochemical data to generate accurate “maps” of equilibrium states, such as phase diagrams, predominance diagrams, and Pourbaix corrosion diagrams. It also recommends which maps are best suited for specific...
moreThe author considers the first and second laws of thermodynamics in turn, after which he... more
Don't have time to read the top Thermodynamics books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
The first three chapters cover the special theory of relativity, in particular the kinematical, mechanical, and electrodynamic consequences of the two postulates of special relativity. Chapter IV develops the close relationships... more
Concise yet thorough, accessible, authoritative, and affordable. These are the hallmarks of books in the remarkable Physics and its Applications series.
Thermodynamics is an essential part of any physical sciences education, but it is so full of pitfalls and subtleties, that many students fail to appreciate its elegance and power. In Thermal Physics, the author emphasizes understanding the basic ideas and shows how the important thermodynamics results can be simply obtained from the fundamental relations without getting lost in a maze of partial differentials.
In this second...
moreMaxwell's work on heat... more
This volume integrates pure and applied concepts from these diverse fields, with the goal of cultivating a modern, nonequilibrium... more
Don't have time to read the top Thermodynamics books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.