Entropy uniqueness determines temperature

A thermometer is a temperature proxy, usually with a fixed number of parameters. When a nearly ideal gas or a similarly simple system is not available, the determination of a temperature scale is difficult, and has been subject to debate. Entropy uniqueness, due to Clausius, provides a fundamental t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of physics 2020-09, Vol.41 (5), p.55101
Main Author: Saslow, Wayne M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
entropy
temperature
thermodynamics
thermometry
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Summary:A thermometer is a temperature proxy, usually with a fixed number of parameters. When a nearly ideal gas or a similarly simple system is not available, the determination of a temperature scale is difficult, and has been subject to debate. Entropy uniqueness, due to Clausius, provides a fundamental theoretical criterion to answer this question. By measuring the heat flow dQ around a grid in p-V space, with M elemental areas, one can test a proposed temperature scale Tn by computing ∑[∮(dQ/Tn)]2, the rms deviation, from the desired value of zero. This approach also can be used to determine which of a group of n thermometers has the most accurate temperature scale Tn. As background we discuss Clausius's development of the mathematics and the concept of entropy. An appendix shows how energy conservation permits one to eliminate the zigs and zags that appear in the Clausius construction for a general Carnot cycle.
ISSN:0143-0807
1361-6404
DOI:10.1088/1361-6404/ab9b3d