Thermodynamic Approach To Temperature
Temperature is one of the principal quantities studied in the field of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics investigates the relation between heat and work, using a special scale of temperature called the absolute temperature, and thus relates temperature to work, as considered below. In thermodynamic terms, temperature is a macroscopic intensive variable because it is independent of the bulk amount of elementary entities contained inside, be they atoms, molecules, or electrons. Real world systems are often not in thermodynamic equilibrium and not homogeneous. For study by methods of classical irreversible thermodynamics, a body is usually spatially and temporally divided conceptually into imagined 'cells' of small size. If classical thermodynamic equilibrium conditions for matter are fulfilled to good approximation in each 'cell', then it is homogeneous and a temperature exists for it, and local thermodynamic equilibrium is said to prevail throughout the body.
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