Abstract

One of the classifications of variables introduced in Sect. 2.2 is between thermal, deformation and mass variables. This corresponds to the three ways that an experimenter can implement changes in the state of the system. Taking them in reverse order, the mass can be changed, or in a multicomponent system the relative amounts of different substances can be changed. Since we are concerned in this part of the book with systems of fixed mass M such processes are not considered.