Always, Sometimes, or Never True

Highlights of the activity

1. Students are placed in small groups and given several scenarios. The students must determine if each statement about the scenario is always, sometimes, or never true.
2. Students will have the opportunity to reason using the first and second thermodynamic laws.

Reasons to spend class time on the activity

Before beginning any computation, one must assess the physical situation to understand what is actually occurring in a process. We have found that after focusing on the use of Maxwell relations and Legendre transforms for an extended period of time, students benefit from returning to the first and second thermodynamic laws to practice physical reasoning. This activity provides students the opportunity to practice using the first and second thermodynamic laws to make physical arguments about many different thermodynamic processes. Since students are working in small groups, the students will have to collaborate to resolve any inconsistencies in their logic of reasoning for answers to each question.

Reflections

• Reflections from the original implementation.

• Reflections from "official" adapters/adopters.

• Reflections from the general public.

Instructor's Guide

• Wiki version

Student Handouts

eesomeneverallhand.pdf

eesomeneverallhand.tex