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Thermodynamics is the much abused slave of many masters * physicists who love the totally impractical Carnot process, * mechanical engineers who design power stations and refrigerators, * chemists who are successfully synthesizing ammonia and are puzzled by photosynthesis, * meteorologists who calculate cloud bases and predict foehn, boraccia and scirocco, * physico-chemists who vulcanize rubber and build fuel cells, * chemical engineers who rectify natural gas and distil f- mented potato juice, * metallurgists who improve steels and harden surfaces, * - trition counselors who recommend a proper intake of calories, * mechanics who adjust heat exchangers, * architects who construe - and often misconstrue - ch- neys, * biologists who marvel at the height of trees, * air conditioning engineers who design saunas and the ventilation of air plane cabins, * rocket engineers who create supersonic flows, et cetera. Not all of these professional groups need the full depth and breadth of ther- dynamics. For some it is enough to consider a well-stirred tank, for others a s- tionary nozzle flow is essential, and yet others are well-served with the partial d- ferential equation of heat conduction. It is therefore natural that thermodynamics is prone to mutilation; different group-specific meta-thermodynamics’ have emerged which serve the interest of the groups under most circumstances and leave out aspects that are not often needed in their fields.
