<p>I'll have done Statics, and Dynamics by then. Is this the stuff in Physics? Carnot cycle, expansion when material is heated, pressure increases of a gas, etc. </p>
<p>I'm kinda nervous, b/c dynamics is really hard, and I heard from an upper class man, that the prof and subject are both really tough. The prof, from what I heard, ain't that helpful and doesn't seem that willing to help you out....This is a bit premature, but I'm curious as to what exactly Thermo is.</p>
<p>A lot depends on your instructor. At my college (Montana State University), thermodynamics was probably the hardest class that I had.</p>
<p>Thermodynamics is the study of the movement of heat. The course will cover how heat engines (such as an internal combustion engine in your vehicle or steam turbine power plant) operate and allow you to calculate operating efficiencies of various plants.</p>
<p>I agree. Thermo is not an easy class at Purdue, not even remotely easy. I guess it varies by school, but from my experience this will be one of the harder classes that you take.</p>
<p>Thermodynamics really has nothing to do with solid dynamics, so don’t worry on that score. However, my opinion is it’s pretty tough in its own right. You will probably be required to take a two-course sequence if you are an ME, the first of which is basic thermo and the second of which will be called something like “thermal systems”, which is more the study of practical thermal cycles (steam, internal combustion, etc.) The second course in my experience was actually quite a bit easier than the first. For me, Heat Transfer was a lot easier as well. However, everybody’s different.</p>
<p>Thermodynamics is kind of a self explanatory word. Thermo is a prefix meaning energy and dynamics means movement, so thermodynamics is the study of the movement of energy (not heat as bigtrees implies, as there are many more types of energy that are potentially important).</p>
<p>I was a mechanical engineering undergrad, so form your opinion accordingly, as the focus of a thermo course will differ if you are taking in in the chemical engineering department or various other departments that offer it. If I recall correctly, at UIUC, a lot of majors just took the ME version though, such as CivE’s and AeroE’s.</p>
<p>Anyway, thermo is often times a weed out class for mechanical engineering programs. It is the first real “meaty” class that you will take and is the basis for about a third of total material that you will take from that point forward in your degree, so a lot of programs like to use it to help separate the cream from the fat. It is, to a large degree, the physical basis behind such later courses as fluid mechanics and heat transfer and such optional courses as internal combustion and pretty much every other class in the area of thermal fluid sciences. Because it is often used as a weed out class, it is often harder than it needs to be.</p>
<p>The subject it self is fairly basic and not conceptually difficult. For the most part, the problems are an exercise in bookkeeping; the hard part is knowing the method to solve the problem and keeping track of all the numbers floating around, not the understanding the physical concept.</p>
<p>The key to success is to make sure you work diligently and don’t fall behind. There are two kinds of people who struggle in thermo: those who don’t take it seriously enough and those who just don’t have a mind for it. By far the former outnumber the latter.</p>
<p>Personally, I loved it, and had I not slacked off, I probably would have done better than the B that I got.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses. I thought the basic math, physics, chem were the weeder courses…many people did switch out, but there are still quite a lot of people in my classes. Statics was relatively easy, dynamics is much, more difficult, and I guess I’ll just have to be on my A game when Thermo comes next quarter!</p>