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@thermotutor.bsky.social

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thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · Sep 11

Quick introduction to ThermoTutor. Get personalized thermodynamics tutoring with instant feedback and follow-up conversations. This 3-minute demo shows how ThermoTutor works, from problem selection to grading to asking follow-up questions. #chemistry #studyhelp #pchem

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thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 1d

James Prescott Joule died on this day in 1889. He measured how motion turns into heat and helped define the first law of thermodynamics. His name became the unit of energy.
#PChem #Joule #Thermodynamics #Chemistry #Physics

Painting of a young James Joule (Science Museum Group Collection). Source: https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/james-joule

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 2d

path-independent means that U is a function of state and the value of ∆U = U_f - U_i is independent of the details of how you got from i=initial to f=final. So if reversible paths give you this dU, then all irreversible paths produce the same dU.

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 2d

What is the fundamental equation of thermodynamics, and where does it come from?

#thermodynamics #pchem #chemistry #physics #studyhelp

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thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 3d

hope this will be useful to students and instructors!

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 3d

Carnot cycles now as live web app 🔥
Drag sliders to see how temperature & volume affect the cycle. Works on any device, no installation needed. Try it:
thermoscripts-carnot.streamlit.app

#thermodynamics #pchem #chemistry #physics

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thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 3d

Plot Carnot cycles with this simple MATLAB script!
Hot (red) and cold (blue) isotherms plus two adiabats (black) form a closed cycle. Change T's, V's, gamma ... most cycles look quite skinny 🌙🔥
github.com/osteinbock/t...

#thermodynamics #pchem #physics #engineering

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 8d

How you do things matters a lot in thermodynamics!

#thermo #pchem #chemistry #physics #studyhelp

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 9d

Unfortunately, there is one wrong word in this video... microstate "2" has only >one< microscopic realization, namely {1,1}. But I couldn't find the internal energy U to record it again 😅

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 9d

Entropy explained in less than 1 minute

#thermodynamics #pchem #chemistry #Boltzmann

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thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 10d

Another fascinating and useful thermodynamic quantity: the compressibility kappa. Unlike many other partial derivatives in thermo, this one has a direct intuitive meaning ... how much does volume drop when you increase pressure?

#thermodynamics #pchem #ChemE #physics #studyhelp

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 11d

The volumetric expansion coefficient α is a quantity relevant to many real-world applications. It also appears in
(∂U/∂T)p = Cv + πT α V,
where πT is the internal pressure and Cv the heat capacity at const V.

#thermodynamics #pchem #ChemE #physics #studyhelp

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 13d

Internal pressure is the key to quantifying the invisible forces between molecules. 🧪

#thermodynamics #pchem #ChemE #physics #studyhelp

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 13d

Gemini 2.5 pro is the best for physical chemistry. While it's hard to know the training sources, I believe Wikipedia is a big part of it. Good or bad, I predict that Wikipedia will be absorbed into some forms of LLM. Perhaps they should develop/integrate their own if financially possible?

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 15d

Only if you completely rely on AI summaries. Otherwise, it's just a fancier form of Google Scholar search. All of this is forced on us by the extreme volume of papers. My retired faculty colleagues still tried to read every paper in J. Phys. Chem. ... now you publish on page 13517 in JPC C

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thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 15d

First thermo exam coming up? Try this drill to master partial derivatives: Euler’s chain rule meets the ideal gas law.
#thermodynamics #pchem #chemistry #physics #chemicalengineering #studytips

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 16d

Understanding the equation for isothermal, reversible expansion work. A short ThermoTutor demo.

#PChem #Thermodynamics #GasLaws #LearnSmarter #Chemistry

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 17d

The internal energy of an ideal gas depends only on temperature, so during adiabatic expansion (q=0), a drop in U means a drop in T. Therefore, peeVee gets colder, not sweatier 🧊🥶

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 17d

During adiabatic expansion, peeVee's internal energy is going down, but should he really be sweating or shivering?

#thermodynamics #pchem #chemistry #physics #studyhelp

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thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 18d

Thermochemistry tells you whether processes are endothermic 🥶 (ΔH>0) or exothermic (ΔH<0) 💥

#thermodynamics #pchem #chemistry #studygram #HessLaw

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 19d

Bring back real pchem labs!

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thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 19d

It's not about the journey, it's about the destination... at least for state functions! 🏔

#thermodynamics #pchem #chemistry #studyhelp

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 20d

Say hi to our mascots ... happy peeVee and grumpy nRT

#thermodynamics #pchem #chemistry #physics #studyhelp

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 21d

For **real gases**, particles do have intermolecular forces (like van der Waals forces). Therefore, changing the volume does change the internal energy, even at constant temperature, because it alters the potential energy component.

thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 21d

ThermoTutor demo explaining why the internal energy of ideal gases depends only on T and not on p or V.

#PChem #Thermodynamics #GasLaws #LearnSmarter #Chemistry

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thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 22d

... did I mention the poor, prisoners, and soldiers? Here is the truth about his soup