This text gives students a clear and easily understood introduction to entropy - a central concept in thermodynamics, but one which is often regarded as the most difficult to grasp. Professor Dugdale first presents a classical and historical view of entropy, looking in detail at the scientists who developed the concept, and at how they arrived at their ideas. This is followed by a statistical treatment which provides a more physical portrait of entropy, relating it to disorder and showing how physical and chemical systems tend to states of order at low temperatures. Dugdale includes here a brief account of some of the more intriguing manifestations of order in properties such as superconductivity and superfluidity.; "Entropy and Its Physical Meaning" also includes a number of exercises which can be used for both self- learning and class work. It is intended to provide a complete understanding of the concept of entropy, making it valuable reading for undergraduates in physics, physical sciences and engineering, and for students studying thermodynamics within other science courses such as meteorology, biology and medicine.

The theory of how metals conduct electronically had for a long time been confined to metals that are crystalline with the constituent atoms in regular arrays. The discovery of how to make solid amorphous alloys led to an explosion of measurements of the electronic properties of these new materials, and the emergence of a range of interesting low temperature phenomena. This 1995 book describes in physical terms the theory of the electrical conductivity, Hall coefficient, magnetoresistance and thermopower of disordered metals and alloys. The author begins by showing how conventional Boltzmann theory can be extended and modified when the mean free path of the conduction electrons becomes comparable with their wavelength and interionic separation. The consequence of this is explored and the theory tested by application to experimental data on metallic glasses. Designed as a self-contained review, the book will appeal to non-specialist physicists, metallurgists and chemists with an interest in disordered metals.

The theory of how metals conduct electronically had for a long time been confined to metals that are crystalline with the constituent atoms in regular arrays. The discovery of how to make solid amorphous alloys led to an explosion of measurements of the electronic properties of these new materials, and the emergence of a range of interesting low temperature phenomena. This 1995 book describes in physical terms the theory of the electrical conductivity, Hall coefficient, magnetoresistance and thermopower of disordered metals and alloys. The author begins by showing how conventional Boltzmann theory can be extended and modified when the mean free path of the conduction electrons becomes comparable with their wavelength and interionic separation. The consequence of this is explored and the theory tested by application to experimental data on metallic glasses. Designed as a self-contained review, the book will appeal to non-specialist physicists, metallurgists and chemists with an interest in disordered metals.