Thermodynamics: Four Laws That Move the Universe Audiobook By Jeffrey C. Grossman, The Great Courses cover art

Thermodynamics: Four Laws That Move the Universe

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Thermodynamics: Four Laws That Move the Universe

By: Jeffrey C. Grossman, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Jeffrey C. Grossman
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $33.90

Buy for $33.90

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

Nothing has had a more profound impact on the development of modern civilization than thermodynamics. Thermodynamic processes are at the heart of everything that involves heat, energy, and work, making an understanding of the subject indispensable for careers in engineering, physical science, biology, meteorology, and even nutrition and culinary arts. Get an in-depth tour of this vital and fascinating science in 24 enthralling lectures suitable for everyone from science novices to experts who wish to review elementary concepts and formulas.

Professor Jeffrey Grossman of MIT uses the four laws of thermodynamics as a launching point to discuss foundational concepts that are critical pillars of science and engineering - ideas such as entropy, chemical potential, Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, osmotic pressure, heat capacity, eutectic melting, and the Carnot cycle. These and other ideas shed light on many phenomena in the natural world, and they are the analytical tools that engineers use to create new devices and technologies. At the end of these lectures, you'll truly appreciate the elegance and importance of thermodynamic principles. Also, you'll have unlocked the secrets to a fascinating aspect of our universe.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2014 The Great Courses (P)2014 The Teaching Company, LLC Physics Science

Listeners also enjoyed...
The Science of Energy Audiobook By Michael E. Wysession, The Great Courses cover art
The Science of Energy By: Michael E. Wysession, and others
The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality Audiobook By Don Lincoln, The Great Courses cover art
The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality By: Don Lincoln, and others
Black Holes, Tides, and Curved Spacetime Audiobook By Benjamin Schumacher, The Great Courses cover art
Black Holes, Tides, and Curved Spacetime By: Benjamin Schumacher, and others
Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition Audiobook By Richard Wolfson, The Great Courses cover art
Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition By: Richard Wolfson, and others
Chemistry and Our Universe Audiobook By Ron B. Davis, The Great Courses cover art
Chemistry and Our Universe By: Ron B. Davis, and others
Neuroscience of Everyday Life Audiobook By The Great Courses cover art
Neuroscience of Everyday Life By: The Great Courses
The Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy Audiobook By Edward J. Larson, The Great Courses cover art
The Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy By: Edward J. Larson, and others
The Philosopher's Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in Any Room Audiobook By Patrick Grim, The Great Courses cover art
The Philosopher's Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in Any Room By: Patrick Grim, and others
Thinking Like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision Making Audiobook By Randall Bartlett, The Great Courses cover art
Thinking Like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision Making By: Randall Bartlett, and others
Food: A Cultural Culinary History Audiobook By Ken Albala, The Great Courses cover art
Food: A Cultural Culinary History By: Ken Albala, and others
The Nature of Matter: Understanding the Physical World Audiobook By David W. Ball, The Great Courses cover art
The Nature of Matter: Understanding the Physical World By: David W. Ball, and others
No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life Audiobook By Robert C. Solomon, The Great Courses cover art
No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life By: Robert C. Solomon, and others
Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science Audiobook By Robert Sapolsky, The Great Courses cover art
Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science By: Robert Sapolsky, and others
The Life and Death of Stars Audiobook By Keivan G. Stassun, The Great Courses cover art
The Life and Death of Stars By: Keivan G. Stassun, and others
Understanding Complexity Audiobook By Scott E. Page, The Great Courses cover art
Understanding Complexity By: Scott E. Page, and others
The Science of Information: From Language to Black Holes Audiobook By Benjamin Schumacher, The Great Courses cover art
The Science of Information: From Language to Black Holes By: Benjamin Schumacher, and others
The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition Audiobook By Daniel N. Robinson, The Great Courses cover art
The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition By: Daniel N. Robinson, and others
The Evidence for Modern Physics Audiobook By Professor Don Lincoln, The Great Courses cover art
The Evidence for Modern Physics By: Professor Don Lincoln, and others
The Great Questions of Philosophy and Physics Audiobook By Steven Gimbel, The Great Courses cover art
The Great Questions of Philosophy and Physics By: Steven Gimbel, and others
Understanding the Misconceptions of Science Audiobook By Don Lincoln, The Great Courses cover art
Understanding the Misconceptions of Science By: Don Lincoln, and others
Accessible Concepts • Intuitive Explanations • Enthusiastic Narration • Engaging Presentation • Educational Content
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
If thermodynamics peaked your interest while at university, well this course is sure to grow that curiosity further. Professor Grossman makes the concepts easy to process and enjoy. Although his staccato rhythm can be distracting at times, the substance is spot on

Incredibly interesting still

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Visualizing mathematical formulas is always challenging in an audio book, and this one has plenty of them. The material is dependent on fairly advanced math -- calculus in many cases -- and a robust understanding of chemistry and physics. There is very little chance of absorbing this material osmotically -- did you catch that pun? In any case, this is one audio book that might require you to break out the supplemental material if you truly want to learn thermodynamics.

Advanced Material

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This series is informative and interesting. However, I struggled to stay focused on it as the material required a chalkboard or a piece of paper and a pen. It is almost impossible to truly appreciate a topic like this without seeing the equations, the charts and the information that the person giving the series lectures is trying to relay.

But it is also true that your average non-science-geek person that knows nothing about thermodynamics would likely benefit from this series if for no other reason than to be exposed to the nomenclature and many of the concepts that drive the conversations related to it.

Audible is the Wrong Platform for This Series

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Buried somewhat in this lengthy course are key connections between lab science, calculus, and clearly defined concepts connected to modern philosophy and the its focus on clear terms. A review of the PDF is necessary for selected chapters to get an understanding of the simple terms and their very complex non intuitive but precise relationships. For me this course is a return to the branch of engineering and science and 'common sense' understandings that propelled the early years of the scientific historical moment. My only complaint for an otherwise excellent intellectual performance is Grossman's diction and elocution, or lack of them really. These are easily corrected defects that several listenings, required for me in any case, corrects nicely.

Link between empirical science, math, philosophy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The course was not made for audio. It was also light on the math. Without the math entropy and gibbs free energy is not easily explained.

Not for audio

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm a chemical engineer and was probably one of the few people in my class who actually enjoyed our thermodynamics class in college. It's a difficult subject. The content of this course is five stars but I hold back one star overall since it may be too difficult for some people without the video. This course was made for video and included demos and equations. That makes listening to it somewhat challenging. But I'm still delighted to see this course made accessible from The Great Courses through Audible at regular prices.

I'd say the audio-only format is just fine for people who have studied thermodynamics previously and are looking for a review. That way all the equations and processes referred to will be easier to visualize mentally. Also listeners with a background in calculus and physics, even if not in thermodynamics, will probably be fine. For beginners it will be more of a challenge, but nothing wrong with that either. It's just something to be aware of.

Excellent Course; Particularly as Review

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm actually shocked at how much I enjoyed this book / course; like to the point where I wish I paid this subject more attention when choosing college courses a lifetime ago. I'd like to think I'm a relatively smart person, but I never realized how Thermodynamics is really a building-block for everything else. I incorrectly assumed the subject would solely be about expansion of materials for machining or construction, like what a Civil or Mechanical engineer might be interested in; but this course is oh-so-much-more. People complained in their reviews about not being able to see the presentations Prof Grossman was doing, but I was able to visualize most. Now I'm off to read it for the 3rd-time...

Splendid

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The material includes lots of formulas which is not suited to an audio format. I've suffered through most of it and there are some interesting points, but the could have cut all the formulas which didn't add anything.

Good teacher. but not audio material

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
First, my complaints.

This honestly should have been a series of video lectures and is not properly adapted for audio.

There are many visual experiments that we are left to imagine from the narration, and several graphs/charts that are mentioned, but which we cannot see.
(The accompanying PDFs doesn't even show those images either, and that is an ideal way to utilise it. I was quite disappointed to learn that.)

I think the effort to prepare this lecture series as an audiobook was very subpar.

---

All the above said, I still greatly enjoyed this read (and reread it quite a few times).

Overall, I found it quite informative and enlightening.

The author's playful style kept my attention, and the material was sufficiently information dense in each chapter.

It's all Gibbs Free Energy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The subject is presented in a manner that not only makes it easy to remember, it at its end has the quality of causing one to not want the book to end.

It is a thoughtful and very educational book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews