Page:Scientific Papers of Josiah Willard Gibbs.djvu/391

Rh the suffixed letter, as in the preceding cases, indicating that the quantity which it represents is constant. This condition, in connection with that of uniform temperature, may be shown to be equivalent to (1) or (2). The difference of the values of $$\psi$$ for two different states of the system which have the same temperature represents the work which would be expended in bringing the system from one state to the other by a reversible process and without change of temperature.

If the system is incapable of thermal changes, like the systems considered in theoretical mechanics, we may regard the entropy as having the constant value zero. Conditions (2) and (4) may then be written and are obviously identical in signification, since in this case $$\psi = \epsilon$$.

Conditions (2) and (4), as criteria of equilibrium, may therefore both be regarded as extensions of the criterion employed in ordinary statics to the more general case of a thermodynamic system. In fact, each of the quantities $$-\epsilon$$ and $$-\psi$$ (relating to a system without sensible motion) may be regarded as a kind of force-function for the system,—the former as the force-function for constant entropy (i.e., when only such states of the system are considered as have the same entropy), and the latter as the force-function for constant temperature (i.e., when only such states of the system are considered as have the same uniform temperature).

In the deduction of the particular conditions of equilibrium for any system, the general formula (4) has an evident advantage over (1) or (2) with respect to the brevity of the processes of reduction, since the limitation of constant temperature applies to every part of the system taken separately, and diminishes by one the number of independent variations in the state of these parts which we have to consider. Moreover, the transition from the systems considered in ordinary mechanics to thermodynamic systems is most naturally made by this formula, since it has always been customary to apply the principles of theoretical mechanics to real systems on the supposition (more or less distinctly conceived and expressed) that the temperature of the system remains constant, the mechanical properties of a thermodynamic system maintained at a constant temperature being such as might be imagined to belong to a purely mechanical system, and admitting of representation by a force-function, as follows directly from the fundamental laws of thermodynamics.

Notwithstanding these considerations, the author has preferred in general to use condition (2) as the criterion of equilibrium, believing that it would be useful to exhibit the conditions of equilibrium of thermodynamic systems in connection with those quantities which