Approaches in Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is a branch of science which deals with the study of transfer of heat.

In thermodynamics, the system means the specific confined area where the experiment takes place and approach means how we analyse the problem or the view point of a problem.

There are 2 approaches in thermodynamics.

1. Microscopic approach

As the name indicates in microscopic approach, the system is composed of each molecules.  Each molecules have its own positions, velocity,energy etc. At an instant  the behavior of the system is calculated by adding the properties of all molecules.For example the energy of the whole system is the algebraic some of the energies of individual molecules. Microscopic approach is also known as statistical thermodynamics.

2. Macroscopic approach

It is very difficult to measure the properties of a single molecule at the present day situation that’s why we change the approach to a system.  In Macroscopic approach, the system is considered as a whole.  Instead of adding the properties of molecules like in microscopic approach here an average of all the properties is taken.

Consider the case of temperature.  The temperature is measure at a specific point of system but in actual case each molecule have different temperature.  It is same as the case of pressure.  That is why the macroscopic approach is called classical thermodynamics.