The use of thermodynamic principles to design, analyze, and optimize real-world systems—engines, refrigerators, power plants, chemical processes, and even electronic devices. It's the engineering workhorse that takes the abstract laws of energy and makes them build things, calculating efficiencies, losses, and feasibility to turn heat into motion, cold, or electricity.
Example: "The applied thermodynamics exam was brutal: 'Design a Rankine cycle for a geothermal plant with these brine temps, calculate the turbine work output, and sketch the T-s diagram.' For the rest of us, it was hieroglyphics. For them, it was the blueprint for pulling power from hot rocks."
by Abzugal January 30, 2026
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