This document provides an overview of key concepts in thermodynamics including:
- Thermodynamics is the branch of physics that studies heat and work. It describes the state of a system using temperature, pressure, and volume.
- The first law of thermodynamics states that the change in internal energy of a system is equal to the heat added minus the work done.
- The second law of thermodynamics establishes that heat cannot spontaneously flow from a cooler body to a hotter body without an external work being performed on the system.
- Carnot's principle defines the maximum possible efficiency of a heat engine as dependent on the temperatures of the hot and cold reservoirs used by the engine.