Why this subject and not another one?
August 1, 2022•334 words
The main reasons I chose this topic are:
- I had to find a topic! (and here, I was at the limit in terms of timing, I write this text on August 1st knowing that I should have had it in April)
- This is one of the chapters where I was the least bad in physics (and physics is probably one of the subjects where I failed the least this year)
- It's a more easily accessible subject (compared to my first choice in computer science on zero-knowledge proofs where I would have had to type 20000 lines of code and with only English theses)
And there are probably a lot of other reasons that my brain refuses to put on paper for having chosen this path and not another one...
During the next few days, I will publish several articles. I will try to mix "pure" thermodynamics with very concrete cases of heat pumps. It's not going to be easy and I hope I'll be as clear as possible.
I will start by explaining the interest of these machines in our societies, I will make for that a brief history. Then, before showing you the general functioning of a heat pump, I will explain you the basics of thermodynamics to be able to understand why it is fantastic!
Finally, even if this subject was not my favorite at the beginning, I must admit that thermodynamics is essential. Without it, we wouldn't have had the industrial revolution, we wouldn't have all the scientific principles that are the basis of our current societies. By taking an essentially macroscopic point of view, we can explain many natural phenomena, and design many objects that impact our daily life such as cars, refrigerators, heat pumps, thermal power plants to produce electricity and so on.
In the next article, I will explain why thermodynamics is not only the science of the past or the present, but especially why it is the science of the future!