The Physics of Energy, page 1
The Physics of Energy
The Physics of Energy provides a comprehensive and systematic introduction to the scientific principles governing energy sources, uses, and systems.
This definitive textbook traces the flow of energy from sources such as solar power, nuclear power, wind power, water power, and fossil fuels through its transformation in devices such as heat engines and electrical generators, to its uses including transportation, heating, cooling, and other applications. The flow of energy through the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, and systems issues including storage, electric grids, and efficiency and conservation are presented in a scientific context along with topics such as radiation from nuclear power and climate change from the use of fossil fuels.
Students, scientists, engineers, energy industry professionals, and concerned citizens with some mathematical and scientific background who wish to understand energy systems and issues quantitatively will find this textbook of great interest.
Robert L. Jaffe holds the Morningstar Chair in the Department of Physics at MIT. He was formerly director of MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics and recently chaired the American Physical Society’s Panel on Public Affairs. Jaffe is best known for his research on the quark substructure of the proton and other strongly interacting particles, on exotic states of matter, and on the quantum structure of the vacuum. He received his BA from Princeton and his PhD from Stanford. In recognition of his contributions to teaching and course development at MIT, Jaffe has received numerous awards including a prestigious MacVicar Fellowship. Jaffe is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Washington Taylor is a Professor of Physics at MIT, and is currently the Director of MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics. Taylor’s research is focused on basic theoretical questions of particle physics and gravity. Taylor has made contributions to our understanding of fundamental aspects of string theory and its set of solutions, including connections to constraints on low-energy field theory and observable physics and to new results in mathematics. Taylor received his BA in mathematics from Stanford and his PhD in physics from UC Berkeley. Among other honors, Taylor has been an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and a Department of Energy Outstanding Junior Investigator, and has received MIT’s Buechner faculty teaching prize.
A long awaited book which comprehensively covers the fundamentals that engineers, scientists and others specializing in energy related fields need to master. Wonderfully written, it unlocks and presents the science behind energy systems in a pure yet accessible manner, while providing many real world examples to help visualize and frame this knowledge. This book would serve as an excellent text for a foundational course in energy engineering.
Khurram Afridi, Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder
Finding the energy to power a civilization approaching 10 billion people without unacceptable consequences to the environment is the greatest challenge facing humanity this century. This book develops all of the fundamental concepts in physics underlying a quantitative understanding of energy sources, interconversion, and end usage, which are essential parts of meeting this challenge. It will serve as unique and authoritative textbook for the teaching of these topics. . . . Overall it is a masterful exposition of the fundamental concepts of physics and their application to the energy-environment problem.
Michael J Aziz, Gene and Tracy Sykes Professor of Materials and Energy Technologies,
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
The textbook by Jaffe and Taylor is an invaluable resource, for instructors and students alike, discussing the physics of energy, a subject that is most important for humankind. . . . The book has great potential as a teaching text for emerging courses on energy physics and promises to become a classic for years to come.
Katrin Becker and Melanie Becker, Texas A&M University
Jaffe and Taylor have produced in a single volume a comprehensive text on energy sources, energy conversion technologies, and energy uses from the unifying vantage of physics. Either in a course or in self-study The Physics of Energy can serve as the foundation for an understanding of conventional and renewable energy technologies.
Paul Debevec, Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics, University of Illinois
Jaffe and Taylor have compiled a comprehensive treatise that covers all aspects of energy: its fundamental role in physics, its sources and its uses. In addition to serving as the backbone for a variety of courses, this book should be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the physics of energy in all of its forms.
David Gross, Chancellor’s Chair Professor of Theoretical Physics, Kavli Institute for Theoretical
Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, Joint Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, 2004
The book can be very useful as a mid-level textbook, as a survey for self-instruction for the serious-minded energy policy analyst, or as a desk reference covering the physics of the full range of energy topics – everything from the energy content of biofuels, to safe nuclear reactor design, to efficient design and placement of wind turbines, to geothermal energy flow, and dozens more topics . . . This book very effectively fills a gap between the plentiful simplistic treatments of energy issues and books for full time professionals in the various energy areas.
Rush Holt, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, former Member of Congress
We live in an age of wonders, when a designer in almost any engineering field can find a dizzying assortment of tools, materials, components, and construction technologies for building. . . . The Physics of Energy answers the question of where to begin. No engineer’s library will be complete without a copy of this literary and intellectual masterpiece. A brilliant story of the foundations of everything.
Steven Leeb, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The book is the only comprehensive discussion of energy sources, flows, and uses that I know of. . . . It is designed as a text for a college level course, or as a refresher for those who already have the background, and is successful in achieving its goal of introducing the student to the science of energy.
Burton Richter, Paul Pigott Professor in the Physical Sciences, Emeritus and Director Emeritus,
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Joint Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, 1976
This is a unique textbook: broad, deep, and crucially important for our society. . . . [Students] are also inspired by new insights into nature and everyday life: no other energy book covers heat pumps, spark ignition engines, climate change, wave/particle duality and the Big Bang.
Joshua Winn, Princeton University
The Physics of Energy
ROBERT L. JAFFE
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
WASHINGTON TAYLOR
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107016651
DOI: 10.1017/9781139061292
© Robert L. Jaffe and Washington Taylor 2018
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2018
Printed in the United Kingdom by Bell and Bain Ltd, January 2018
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN 978-1-107-01665-1 Hardback
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To our parents, our teachers, our spouses and, most of all, to our children
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part IBasic Energy Physics and Uses 1Introduction 1.1Units and Energy Quantities
1.2Types of Energy
1.3Scales of Energy
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
2Mechanical Energy 2.1Kinetic Energy
2.2Potential Energy
2.3Air Resistance and Friction
2.4Rotational Mechanics
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
3Electromagnetic Energy 3.1Electrostatics, Capacitance, and Energy Storage
3.2Currents, Resistance, and Resistive Energy Loss
3.3Magnetism
3.4Electric Motors and Generators
3.5Induction and Inductors
3.6Max well's Equations
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
4Waves and Light 4.1Waves and a Wave Equation
4.2Waves on a String
4.3Electromagnetic Waves
4.4Energy and Momentum in Electric and Magnetic Fields
4.5General Features of Waves and Wave Equations
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
5Thermodynamics I: Heat and Thermal Energy 5.1What is Heat?
5.2Pressure and Work
5.3First Law of Thermodynamics
5.4Heat Capacity
5.5Enthalpy
5.6Phase Transitions
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
6Heat Transfer 6.1Mechanisms of Heat Transfer
6.2Heat Conduction
6.3Heat Transfer by Convection and Radiation
6.4Preventing Heat Loss from Buildings
6.5The Heat Equation
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
7Introduction to Quantum Physics 7.1Motivation: The Double Slit Experiment
7.2Quantum Wavefunctions and the Schrödinger Wave Equation
7.3Energy and Quantum States
7.4Quantum Superposition
7.5Quantum Measurement
7.6Time Dependence
7.7Quantum Mechanics of Free Particles
7.8Particles in Potentials
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
8Thermodynamics II: Entropy and Temperature 8.1Introduction to Entropy and the Second Law
8.2Information Entropy
8.3Thermodynamic Entropy
8.4Thermal Equilibrium and Temperature
8.5Limit to Efficiency
8.6The Boltzmann Distribution
8.7The Partition Function and Simple Thermodynamic Systems
8.8Spontaneous Processes and Free Energy
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
9Energy in Matter 9.1Energy, Temperature, and the Spectrum of Electromagnetic Radiation
9.2A Tour of the Internal Energy of Matter I: From Ice to Vapor
9.3A Tour of the Internal Energy of Matter II: Molecular Vibrations, Dissociation, and Binding Energies
9.4Internal Energy, Enthalpy, and Free Energy in Chemical Reactions
9.5Chemical Thermodynamics: Examples
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
10Thermal Energy Conversion 10.1Thermodynamic Variables, Idealizations, and Representations
10.2Thermodynamic Processes in Gas Phase Engines
10.3Carnot Engine
10.4Stirling Engine
10.5Limitations to Efficiency of Real Engines
10.6Heat Extraction Devices: Refrigerators and Heat Pumps
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
11Internal Combustion Engines 11.1Spark Ignition Engines and the Otto Cycle
11.2Combustion and Fuels
11.3Real Spark Ignition Engines
11.4Other Internal Combustion Cycles
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
12Phase-change Energy Conversion 12.1Advantages of Phase Change in Energy Conversion Cycles
12.2Phase Change in Pure Substances
12.3The Real World: Engineering Nomenclature and Practical Calculations
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
13Thermal Power and Heat Extraction Cycles 13.1Thermodynamics with Flowing Fluids
13.2Heat Extraction and the Vapor-compression Cycle
13.3The Rankine Steam Cycle
13.4Low-temperature Organic Rankine Systems
13.5Gas Turbine and Combined Cycles
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
Part IIEnergy Sources 14The Forces of Nature 14.1Forces, Energies, and Distance Scales
14.2Elementary Particles
14.3The Weak Interactions and β-decay
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
15Quantum Phenomena in Energy Systems 15.1Decays and Other Time-dependent Quantum Processes
15.2The Origins of Tunneling
15.3Barrier Penetration
15.4Tunneling Lifetimes
15.5The Pauli Exclusion Principle
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
16An Overview of Nuclear Power 16.1Overview
16.2Nuclear Fission Fuel Resources
16.3The Following Chapters
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
17Structure, Properties, and Decays of Nuclei 17.1Basic Nuclear Properties
17.2The Semi-empirical Mass Formula
17.3Nuclear Binding Systematics
17.4Nuclear Decays
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
18Nuclear Energy Processes: Fission and Fusion 18.1Comparing Fission and Fusion
18.2Cross Sections
18.3Physics of Nuclear Fission
18.4Physics of Nuclear Fusion
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
19Nuclear Fission Reactors and Nuclear Fusion Experiments 19.1Nuclear Fission Reactor Dynamics
19.2Physics Issues Affecting Fission Reactor Operation and Safety
19.3Breeding and Fission Reactors
19.4Fission Reactor Design: Past, Present, and Future
19.5Nuclear Reactor Power Cycles
19.6Experiments in Thermonuclear Fusion
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
20Ionizing Radiation 20.1Forms of Ionizing Radiation: An Overview
20.2Interactions of Radiation with Matter
20.3Measures of Radiation
20.4Biological Effects of Radiation
20.5Radiation in the Human Environment
20.6Nuclear Waste and Nuclear Proliferation
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
21Energy in the Universe 21.1What is Energy?
21.2A Brief History of Energy in the Universe
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
22Solar Energy: Solar Production and Radiation 22.1Nuclear Source of Solar Energy
22.2Blackbody Radiation and Solar Radiation
22.3Derivation of the Blackbody Radiation Formula
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
23Solar Energy: Solar Radiation on Earth 23.1Insolation and the Solar Constant
23.2Earth's Orbit
23.3Variation of Insolation
23.4Interaction of Light with Matter
23.5Atmospheric Absorption
23.6Extent of Resource
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
24Solar Thermal Energy 24.1Solar Absorption and Radiation Balance
24.2Low-temperature Solar Collectors
24.3Concentrators
24.4Solar Thermal Electricity (STE)
Discussion/Investigation Questions
Problems
25Photovoltaic Solar Cells 25.1Introductory Aspects of Solid-state Physics
25.2Quantum Mechanics on a Lattice
25.3Electrons in Solids and Semiconductors
25.4The PV Concept and a Limit on Collection Efficiency
