Thermodynamic Temperature Scales

QC
QH
W
This tie-fighter diagram shows a heat engine operating between a hot thermal reservoir at TH and a cold thermal reservoir at TC.  The heat engine absorbs heat QH from the hot reservoir, rejects heat QC to the cold reservoir and produces work, W.
  • What if we know the temperature of one thermal
    reservoir
    and we measure QH, QC, and W from
    our reversible HE experimentally?
  • Then, we could calculate η and, if we knew how η depended on TC and TH, we could determine the temperature of the other reservoir !
  • This would allow us to construct a temperature scale that does not depend on the working fluid or the properties of any substance. This type of temperature scale is called a Thermodynamic Temperature Scale.
  • The objective of this lesson is to determine the functional dependence of η on TC and TH and to use it to develop a Thermodynamic Temperature Scale and to explore how such a scale is related to other temperature scales.
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Ch 6, Lesson F, Page 2 - Thermodynamic Temperature Scales