Teaching the third law of thermodynamics

TL;DR

This paper reviews the formulations, implications, and advanced applications of the third law of thermodynamics, aiming to assist educators in effectively teaching this fundamental concept to science and engineering students.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive summary of the third law's formulations, implications, and applications, consolidating scattered research for educational use.

Findings

Clarifies the impossibility of perpetual motion of the third kind

Discusses applications to negative temperatures and heat capacities

Explores relevance to the arrow of time in relativity

Abstract

This work gives a brief summary of major formulations of the third law of thermodynamics and their implications, including the impossibility of perpetual motion of the third kind. The last sections of this work review more advanced applications of the third law to systems with negative temperatures and negative heat capacities. The relevance of the third law to protecting the arrow of time in general relativity is also discussed. Additional information, which may useful in analysis of the third law, is given in the Appendices. This short review is written to assist lecturers in selecting a strategy for teaching the third law of thermodynamics to engineering and science students. The paper provides a good summary of the various issues associated with the third law, which are typically scattered over numerous research publications and not discussed in standard textbooks.