HI 2253/W From Heat Engines to Black Holes

3 Credits

What is the nature of heat? How does it relate to atoms, black holes, information and a demon in a box full of gas molecules? This course answers these questions by developing the history of thermodynamics. That history begins with early 18th-century caloric theories of heat, 19th-century analyses of steam engines, the kinetic theory of gases, the statistical approach to mechanics, atomic theories of matter, the concept of entropy, early 20th-century concepts of information and, finally, current applications to black holes (as well as Maxwell and his famous demon). The course considers theoretical descriptions of the phenomena and the technologies derived from them.

Prerequisite(s): EW 1023 or EN 1233W or EN 1203H .
Note: Satisfies a humanities and social sciences elective.