History of Science: Thermodynamics

Who was the American physicist known as Count Rumford?

• Antoine Lavoisier

• Gabriel Fahrenheit

• Nicolas Sadi Carnot

• Benjamin Thompson

What did Rumford's experiment with cannons reveal about heat?

• Heat is a colorless fluid

• Heat is a result of friction

• Heat is transferred through air

• Heat is a form of mechanical motion

Who developed the Carnot cycle and the second law of thermodynamics?

• Nicolas Sadi Carnot

• Julius von Mayer

• James Watt

• Benjamin Thompson

What does the second law of thermodynamics state?

• Heat can never pass from a colder body to a warmer body without other changes occurring

• Energy can be lost in a closed system

• Entropy of a closed system can decrease

• Heat can flow from a colder body to a warmer body

Who independently discovered the mechanical equivalence of heat energy?

• Julius von Mayer

• Rudolf Clausius

• James Joule

• Benjamin Thompson

What did James Joule's experiments with falling weights and paddle wheels demonstrate?

• Heat is a form of electrical energy

• Heat can be converted into mechanical work

• Heat is a result of chemical reactions

• Heat and motion are unrelated

Who coined the term 'thermodynamics' and worked on the science of absolute temperatures?

• Lord Kelvin

• Rudolf Clausius

• James Watt

• Benjamin Thompson

What did Rudolf Clausius contribute to thermodynamics?

• He discovered the first law of thermodynamics

• He coined the term 'thermodynamics'

• He discovered the second law of thermodynamics

• He named and mathematically described entropy

What did the first and second laws of thermodynamics state, according to Clausius?

• Entropy of a closed system can decrease, heat is a form of mechanical motion

• Energy of the universe is constant, entropy of the universe tends to a maximum

• Energy can change from one form to another, heat can never pass from a colder body to a warmer body without other changes occurring

• Heat can flow from a colder body to a warmer body, energy can be lost in a closed system

What did thermodynamics unite in the way that Newton's Principia united mathematics and astronomy?

• Entropy and statistics

• Heat and motion

• Heat engines and chemical reactions

• Chemistry and physics