We have deliberately given a distinctive historical flavor to the book, in part because the history of the subject is of special interest to many students. More importantly, we are convinced that many scientific topics are more comprehensible if they are introduced with some regard to the way in which they originally came to be understood. For example, attempts to present the laws of thermodynamics as postulates are in our opinion unsatisfactory from the pedagogical point of view. A presentation in terms of how the laws of thermodynamics were deduced from the experimental evidence is, we think, much easier for students to understand. In addition, by seeing the historical development of a subject we learn more about the scientific method than we can learn in any other way.
We realize that an historical approach may be dubbed "old-fashioned," but fashion must surely give way to effectiveness. We have also included eleven short biographies of scientists, chosen not because we think their work more important than that rf others (for who is able to make such a judgment?), but because we find their lives and careers to be of particular interest.
Several special aids are provided for the student in this book. New to this edition is the Objectives section listing key ideas or techniques that the student should have mastered after finishing the chapter. The Preview of each chapter describes the material to be presented in a brief narrative that gives a sense of unity to the material of the chapter. All new terms are in italics or in boldface type. Particular attention should be paid to these terms as well as to the equations that are boxed for special emphasis. Key equations that appear in the chapter occur in a concise listing at the end of each chapter. The mathematical relationships provided in Appendix C should prove useful as a handy reference.