2.17 Thermal Physics
Thermal physics is the combined study of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and kinetic theory. The scientific interest in studying heat started after the invention steam engine by Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729 AD). Subsequently, the industrial revolution began in England in the mid 18th century, which began to apply scientific principles to the production of goods and “dominate nature” as predicted by Bacon.
The French engineer Sadi Carnot (1796-1832 AD) developed the theoretical foundations of heat engines, while James Joule (1818-89 AD) established the equivalence between work and heat. This laid the basis for the first law of thermodynamics, which says that the change in the energy of a system is equal to the heat input to it plus the mechanical work done on it. This law was first stated explicitly by the Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888 AD) and William Kelvin (1824-1907 AD) in 1851, but it is simply another version of the law of conservation of energy, adapted for thermodynamic systems.