This text addresses the use of purely thermal data in calculating the position of equilibrium in a chemical reaction. Its argument highlights the physical content of thermodynamics, as distinct from purely mathematical aspects. Methods are limited to a very few of the most elementary operations of the calculus, all of which are explained in an appendix. Readers need no more than a sound background in high school mathematics and physics, as well as some familiarity with the leading quantitative concepts of an introductory college chemistry course.
An introduction establishes the...

This concise, elementary treatment illustrates the ways in which an atomic-molecular perspective yields new insights and powers operative in the realms of macroscopic thermodynamics. Starting with an analysis of some very simple microcanonical ensembles, it proceeds to the Boltzmann distribution law and a systematic exploration of the proper formulation, evaluation, and application of partition functions. The concepts of equilibrium and entropy thus acquire new significance, and readers discover how thermodynamic parameters may be calculated from spectroscopic data.
Encompassing virtually...