Clausius’s initial ideas about entropy and their possible contributions to teacher education

Abstract

By analyzing Carnot’s results published in 1824, Clausius establishes the two laws of thermodynamics and the formal definition of entropy in 1867. We show that Clausius’s starting point is an assumption which is currently unknown; according to him there is an equivalence of transformations in the reversible cycles. He elaborated his initial assumption in the form of a theorem, which he called the “theorem of equivalence of transformations.” By quantifying such equivalence, he established equivalent values for the transformations, which we now recognize as the values of entropy associated with the transformations. The idea of equivalence of transformations constitutes a unique understanding of the concept of entropy by Clausius, and that it is wholly consistent with the modern conceptual framework of thermodynamics. We discuss some contributions of these conceptions to teacher education, and some ideas by Amelia I. Hamburger and Michael R. Matthews on the use of history and philosophy of science in teacher education.