Thermodynamics
Real thermodynamics for talented middle schoolers.
Online from anywhere · or in-person in Princeton, NJ
A World Through the Lens of Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is one of the four courses of the Physics Lyceum: Middle School curriculum, taught on the Deep Physics model that runs through the whole SoTS Physics Lyceum.
The course runs on theory, problem-solving sessions, homework, and practical laboratory work. The Lyceum provides the equipment, and tuition covers it.
1. Temperature and Thermal Motion
What temperature actually measures. Thermal motion: the idea that all matter is made of tiny particles in constant motion. Temperature as a measure of how fast they move on average. Internal energy as the total energy of all that motion. Why two things in contact end up at the same temperature.
2. Heat Transfer
The three ways heat moves from one place to another. Conduction: heat traveling through solids by particle collisions, and why metals conduct so much better than wood. Convection: heat carried by moving fluids, like in a pot of soup or the atmosphere. Radiation: heat traveling as invisible light, which is how the Sun warms the Earth across empty space.
3. Specific Heat and Calorimetry
Why some things heat up fast and others slowly. Specific heat as the amount of energy it takes to warm one gram by one degree. Why water has such a large specific heat, and why that matters for the climate. Calorimetry: tracking energy as it moves between objects so you can predict the final temperature on paper.
4. Phase Transitions and Latent Heat
Why melting ice stays at zero degrees, no matter how much heat you add. Solid, liquid, and gas as three states of matter. Melting, freezing, boiling, and condensing as phase transitions. Latent heat: the hidden energy a substance absorbs or releases as it changes phase, without its temperature changing.
5. Kinetic Theory of Matter
Where heat and pressure come from, in pictures. Solids, liquids, and gases as different arrangements of the same kind of moving particles. Pressure of a gas as the result of countless tiny collisions. Why a balloon expands when you warm it. Why diffusion happens: a drop of food coloring spreading through water without anyone stirring it.
6. A First Look at Heat Engines
How heat is turned into useful work. The basic idea behind a heat engine: take in heat from a hot place, do some work, dump the rest into a cold place. Steam engines, car engines, and refrigerators as variations on the same theme. A first taste of the rule that no engine can ever be perfectly efficient, no matter how cleverly it is built.
The specific topics, and the depth given to each, may shift depending on the dynamics of the cohort. The destination, a working understanding of heat, temperature, and the kinetic picture of matter, stays the same.