thermodynamics

A pressure cooker traps steam to raise water's boiling point from 100°C to about 121°C, cutting cook times several-fold. Here is the physics and the math.

In 2021, physicists at the University of Bremen cooled a cloud of rubidium atoms to 38 picokelvin — 38 trillionths of a degree above absolute zero — the coldest temperature ever recorded in a laboratory. At the opposite extreme, the ALICE experiment at CERN produced quark-gluon plasma at 5.5 trillion kelvin in 2012, the hottest temperature ever achieved by human hands. Above both records, the Planck temperature — 1.416 × 10^32 kelvin — marks the point where physics itself breaks down. Between these endpoints, the temperature scale encompasses every phenomenon in the universe, from interstellar clouds barely above nothing to the supernovae that forge heavy elements.

James Joule used falling weights and spinning paddles to prove that mechanical work and heat are the same thing — establishing the first law of thermodynamics and the SI unit that bears his name.

Willis Carrier invented the first modern air conditioning system in 1902 to solve a humidity problem at a Brooklyn printing plant. His psychrometric equations still govern HVAC design today.

How Thomas Newcomen's 1712 atmospheric engine and James Watt's 1769 separate condenser transformed fire into motion and launched the Industrial Revolution.

Ludwig Boltzmann built statistical mechanics, derived S=k log W, and defended atomic theory for decades against fierce opposition. His biography, science, and tragic end.

Can hot water really freeze faster than cold water? The Mpemba effect is one of physics' weirdest puzzles — here's what 60 years of research reveals.

The four laws of thermodynamics, what entropy really means, heat engines, black holes, the arrow of time, and why life is a local entropy reversal.