✎ Maxwell Relations [The Physics Travel Guide]

You've loaded an old revision of the document! If you save it, you will create a new version with this data.

====== Maxwell Relations ======

<tabbox Why is it interesting?> 
The Maxwell relations encode useful relationships between notions of [[theories:classical_theories:thermodynamics|thermodynamics]].

<note tip>
Explanations in this section should contain no formulas, but instead colloquial things like you would hear them during a coffee break or at a cocktail party.
</note>
  
<tabbox Student>

For a great explanation, why the Maxwell relations are "just a sneaky way of saying that the mixed partial derivatives of the function U commute". see https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/classical-mechanics-versus-thermodynamics-part-1/

(The fact that partial derivatives commute is known as Schwarz' theorem (see  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_relations . Schwarz' theorem is simply a way of stating "the fact that a function S doesn’t change when we go around a parallelogram" https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/classical-mechanics-versus-thermodynamics-part-2/)
<tabbox Researcher>

<note tip>
The motto in this section is: //the higher the level of abstraction, the better//.
</note>

--> Common Question 1#

<--

--> Common Question 2#

<--
  
<tabbox Examples>

--> Example1#

<--

--> Example2:#

<--
  
<tabbox History>

</tabbox>

Please solve the following equation to prove you're human. 56 -0 = Please keep this field empty:

Edit summary

Note: By editing this page you agree to license your content under the following license: CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

User Tools

Site Tools

Page Tools