A novel approach to the teaching of entropy based on a recent single particle heat engine model

In a recently developed simple particle mechanics model in which a single particle represents the working fluid (gas) in a heat engine (exemplified by a piston engine) a new approach was outlined for the teaching of concepts to thermodynamic students. By mechanics reasoning a model was developed that demonstrates the connection between the Carnot efficiency limitation of heat engines and the Kelvin-Planck statement of Second Law requiring only the truth of the Clausius statement. In this paper the model is extended to introduce entropy. Here the particle's entropy is defined as a function of its kinetic energy and the space that it occupies that is analogous to that normally found in classical macroscopic analyses. Copyright © 2006 by ASME