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The following section concentrates on the relationship between the mechanical work performed by the system and the heat that gets in the system, as expressed in the first law of thermodynamics. Then a brief description of a thermodynamic system is given. We first discuss about the ideal gas equation and its application in dry air, water vapour, and moist air. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the basic elements and relationships that exist in the thermodynamics. Thermodynamics plays an important role in our quantitative understanding of atmospheric processes in a wide range, from the smallest cloud microphysics process to the global atmospheric circulation (Iribarne and Godson 1973). It can be applied in many scientific disciplines, including physics, chemistry, and biology.
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These properties are known as state variables, or thermodynamic variables.
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The equilibrium state of the system can be fully determined by a small number of properties such as pressure, temperature, and volume. The system is a typical example of the matter. Atmospheric thermodynamics deals with the transformations of the energy in a system and between the system and its environment. The main task of atmospheric thermodynamics is to interpret the average properties of macroscopic properties of a system in equilibrium, and related to proportionally slow movements, utilizing mathematical-physical concept (Bohren and Albrecht 1998 Tsonis 2002 Zdunkowski and Bott 2004 Curry and Webster 2005 North and Erukhimova 2009 Hantel 2013 Khvorostyanov and Curry 2014). Thus, thermodynamics is defined as the study of equilibrium states of a system which has been subjected to some energy transformation. Thermodynamics represents a branch of physics which deals with the energy and work of the system and the energy transfer from one place to another.
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