Some Like It Hot: A Brief Tour of Thermodynamics
SCI4-5b-Wed2
Franklin Segall
This course will take place in person at 60 Turner Street. The room will be equipped with a HEPA air purifier.
October 16 - November 13
Mankind has had the benefits of warmth derived from heat for millennia. We have only enjoyed the benefit of physical power produced from heat since the late 18th century. When the steam engine was created to harness the mechanical power of heat the industrial revolution began and civilization was changed irrevocably. The academic study of heat and work is called thermodynamics. When this scientific field was created in the 19th century, discoveries were made that far transcended its original engineering focus. What propels heat to move from hot objects to cold ones? How are different types of energy related? Thermodynamics also explains why time flows irrevocably in one direction.
The five-week course will be anchored by the very readable book “Einstein’s Fridge,” written by Paul Sen. We will cover a significant portion of the book by reading several chapters each week. Class sessions will be devoted to discussion of the assigned reading as well as presentations by the SGL of the remarkable and profound principles of thermodynamics, in coordination with the readings. In-class demonstrations will illustrate some of the core concepts of the course. Heat pumps will be discussed as an example of a practical and contemporary application of thermodynamics.
No prior knowledge is required to take this approachable course. Come with curiosity and a desire to learn some amazing science.
More lecture than facilitated discussion.
Einstein’s Fridge by Paul Sen. Scribner 2021, ISBN 978-1-5011-8131-3 or the William Collins edition. Paperback editions are available on new or used book websites, e.g. Amazon.com or Abebooks.com. A Google site will accompany the course and contain supplemental materials.
1-2 hours per week.
Franklin Segall, a retired physician, has maintained a decades-long interest in the physical sciences. Frank majored in mathematics as an undergraduate and he also studied physics and engineering at the college level. These subjects were largely set aside when his medical training began. As a physician, Frank taught kidney medicine (nephrology) at the bedside or in the lecture hall for 37 years. As a BOLLI SGL, Frank created and taught the ten-week course “Faraday, Maxwell and Einstein: A Brief History of Electromagnetism.” This is his sixth year at BOLLI.