Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of thermodynamics which convey a quantitative description using measurable macroscopic physical quantities, but may be explained in terms of microscopic constituents by statistical mechanics.

2 episodes

Episodes in this category also belong to the following categories:

  1. Heat

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of scientific ideas about heat from fire to thermodynamics.

    4 December 2008

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    Featuring: Simon Schaffer, Hasok Chang, Joanna Haigh

     
  2. Kinetic Theory

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the growth of ideas about gas pressure, from Newton's theory that static particles push against each other to Maxwell and Boltzmann's moving atoms.

    23 May 2019

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    Featuring: Steven Bramwell, Isobel Falconer, Ted Forgan