Thermodynamics Quotes

• Thermodynamics is a funny subject. The first time you go through it, you don't understand it at all. The second time you go through it, you think you understand it, except for one or two small points. The third time you go through it, you know you don't understand it, but by that time you are so used to it, it doesn't bother you any more.

  

  Arnold Sommerfeld
  • Understand
  • Thermodynamics
  • Go Through

• Regarding the Laws of Thermodynamics: "(1) You can't win, (2) you can't break even, and (3) you can't get out of the game.

  

  Dennis Overbye
  • Game
  • Regarding
  • Thermodynamics

• If, as is the custom, I speak mainly about my own researches, I must say that I was fortunate in finding that not everything had yet been gleaned in the field of general thermodynamic radiation theory.

  

  Wilhelm Wien
  • Fortunate
  • Custom
  • Radiation

• It is possible to express the laws of thermodynamics in the form of independent principles , deduced by induction from the facts of observation and experiment, without reference to any hypothesis as to the occult molecular operations with which the sensible phenomena may be conceived to be connected; and that course will be followed in the body of the present treatise. But, in giving a brief historical sketch of the progress of thermodynamics, the progress of the hypothesis of thermic molecular motions cannot be wholly separated from that of the purely inductive theory.

  

  William John Macquorn Rankine
  • Progress
  • Independent
  • Historical

• In thermodynamics as well as in other branches of molecular physics , the laws of phenomena have to a certain extent been anticipated, and their investigation facilitated, by the aid of hypotheses as to occult molecular structures and motions with which such phenomena are assumed to be connected. The hypothesis which has answered that purpose in the case of thermodynamics, is called that of "molecular vortices," or otherwise, the "centrifugal theory of elasticity.

  

  William John Macquorn Rankine
  • Purpose
  • Phenomenon
  • Investigation

• As soon as we step beyond the established boundaries of pure thermodynamic theory, we enter a trackless region confronting us with obstacles which even the most astute of us are almost at a loss to tackle.

  

  Wilhelm Wien
  • Obstacles
  • Step
  • Boundaries

• Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes, and the second law of thermodynamics.

  

  Seth Lloyd
  • Life
  • Certain
  • Thermodynamics

• The laws of thermodynamics were very clear on the subject – all debts must be paid in full.

  

  Ben Aaronovitch
  • Laws
  • Debts
  • Thermodynamics

• The laws of thermodynamics may be regarded as particular cases of more general laws, applicable to all such states of matter as constitute Energy , or the capacity to perform work, which more general laws form the basis of the science of energetics, a science comprehending, as special branches, the theories of motion, heat, light , electricity , and all other physical phenomena.

  

  William John Macquorn Rankine
  • Particular
  • Electricity
  • Branches

• I find the big bang, really quite fascinating. I mean, here you have all these highfalutin scientists and they're saying it was this gigantic explosion and everything came into perfect order. Now these are the same scientists that go around touting the second law of thermodynamics, which is entropy, which says that things move toward a state of disorganization.

  

  Benjamin Carson
  • Law
  • Scientists
  • Entropy