J. Fenn – Engines, Energy, and Entropy
*Engines, Energy, and Entropy* by the American author J.B. Fenn is an introductory course on thermodynamics that covers both fundamental principles and various technical applications. The material is presented at a level accessible to a wide audience.
The book *Engines, Energy, and Entropy* by the American author J.B. Fenn is intended for non-physics majors studying technical thermodynamics, as well as for engineers, physics teachers, and high school students.
A trend has emerged toward the increasingly frequent use of an axiomatic approach, which reduces thermodynamics to exercises in deriving various formal statements from a few postulates accepted simply *ab initio*. Another popular approach involves deriving the principles of macroscopic thermodynamics from a specific microscopic atomic-molecular model of matter through a combination of mechanics and statistics. Both approaches have their merits, and a student should be familiar with them. However, they strike me as overly artificial—too far removed from everyday experience and the visible, tangible, audible world. In my view, they fail to help the student truly grasp classical thermodynamics, a framework that is so effective at describing the real world.
Historically, classical thermodynamics emerged from the human mind’s ability to draw general conclusions from a relatively small number of specific observations. The power and beauty of thermodynamics stand as a testament to the triumph of the inductive method. Of course, deduction also plays a vital role in deriving specific results from general principles. Yet, to understand these general principles, to apply them with confidence, and to learn to readily relate them to physical reality, one must trace the path of inductive reasoning that led the pioneers of the field to their discoveries.
In writing this book—*Engines, Energy, and Entropy* by the American author J.B. Fenn—I sought to highlight and explain the process of establishing a correspondence between abstract quantities and physical reality, constantly drawing upon the reader’s own experience and linking it to the collective experience of *Homo sapiens*. I have long held the view that an individual’s learning process closely parallels that of the species as a whole. Consequently, I have interspersed the text with a considerable amount of historical material. Most students appreciated this and welcomed the inclusion of historical sketches, though some were initially critical, feeling that historical details and other humanities-related content had no place in a book dedicated to science and technology. To my surprise, most of these negative reactions came from students with backgrounds in the arts, humanities, or social sciences! They held a view of natural laws as fixed and immutable, and were apparently disappointed to learn that the discovery and refinement of these laws were the result of the ongoing efforts of many scientists. These same students disliked the informal, relaxed writing style I had deliberately cultivated. They were put off by the references to “Charlie.” Ultimately, however, they came to accept him and even enjoyed an approach to learning that allowed them to relax from time to time.
This book— *Engines, Energy, and Entropy* by the American author J.B. Fenn —was used (in manuscript form) by students taking introductory chemistry and physics courses. Because standard textbooks for these courses must cover a vast array of topics, they are necessarily limited to the most schematic descriptions of thermodynamic methods and their applications. For biology and geology students, this book can serve as an accessible introduction to a subject that is playing an increasingly important role in their respective disciplines. This book will be useful to students intending to pursue physics or engineering who are taking a specialized course in thermodynamics, particularly because its overall plan and approach differ fundamentally from standard textbooks.
Furthermore, J. Fenn’s *Engines, Energy, and Entropy* is valuable because it addresses a number of questions that are typically overlooked in other texts—questions students often hesitate to ask because they seem too elementary. Despite its simplicity (or perhaps precisely because of it), the book can serve as a primary text for engineering students taking a one-semester thermodynamics course, especially at the undergraduate level. Students who fully master the material will possess a grasp of the subject’s fundamentals just as solid as that of students using traditional textbooks.
It should be clear from the foregoing remarks that J. Fenn’s *Engines, Energy, and Entropy* is not a conventional thermodynamics textbook. It makes no claim to comprehensiveness, mathematical rigor, or stylistic elegance. It does not align with any specific curriculum; to learn how to solve a wide range of problems, the reader should consult more mathematically oriented guides. The book’s aim is to help the reader gain a clear understanding of the fundamental principles and methods of thermodynamics. It is intentionally elementary, and the author has made a genuine effort to keep the presentation simple.
