

La termodinámica es una herramienta fundamental en cualquier curso universitario inicial de química ya que constituye una base conceptual sólida sobre la cual se pueden justificar los aspectos fenomenológicos de diversos temas. We discuss here how these false interpretations commonly develop, and propose possible alternatives to decrease their frequency.
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The following are the most frequent ones: 1) to incorrectly extend to all isothermal processes in any system, the conclusion that the internal energy change is null for all isothermal expansion-compression processes of an ideal gas, 2) to unrestrictedly associate enthalpy changes with transferred thermal energy, 3) to unrestrictedly use free energy changes as spontaneity criteria. In these conditions, great care must be exerted to help students avoid the misconceptions that they frequently adopt after being exposed to this partial vision of thermodynamics. It is unavoidable, at this initial level, to treat thermodynamic concepts partially (especially the second principle), and to use examples and applications corresponding to very definite and simple cases. Most phenomena described in introductory university courses of chemistry have a solid thermodynamic conceptual foundation. Thermodynamic concepts: Some consideration on their use in introductory courses of chemistryġDepartamento de Química, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 47 y 115 (1900) La Plata, Argentina, Fax: +54 2, 1E-mail: June 07, 2005.
