Thermodynamics — Class 11 CBSE Physics revision notes
A 6-page visual revision sheet for Thermodynamics, written for Class 11 CBSE Physics. Formulas, diagrams and the traps that cost marks, laid out to be read the night before rather than the term before. Free, and it opens inside CapCompass.
Page 1 as PDF
Thermodynamics in one look
heat and work both move energy, but only one of them is ever a state function
Zeroth law of thermodynamics
- bodies in contact exchange heat until their temperatures are equal
- then no net heat flows: they are in thermal equilibrium
- A with C, and B with C: then A and B are in equilibrium too
- the shared property is temperature: why a thermometer works at all
Heat, work and internal energy
- U is a state function, fixed by the state alone (ideal gas: by T alone)
- heat Q and work W are not state functions: they change with the path
- sign convention: Q positive when absorbed, W positive when done by the gas
- work is the area under the path on a P-V diagram
- a cycle ends where it began: Δ U = 0, net W = the enclosed area
The first law of thermodynamics
- general statement
Δ U = Q - W - a complete cycle, back to the start
Δ U = 0,quad Q = W - no heat crosses the boundary (adiabatic)
Q = 0,quad Δ U = -W
Page 1 of 6. The full sheet, all 6 pages, opens free in the app.
What this Thermodynamics sheet covers
- Zeroth law of thermodynamics
- Heat, work and internal energy
- The first law of thermodynamics
- general statement
- a complete cycle, back to the start
- no heat crosses the boundary (adiabatic)
- Isothermal and adiabatic, the equations
- isothermal, ideal gas
- work done, isothermal expansion
- adiabatic, ideal gas
- work done, adiabatic
- Isochoric and isobaric
- isochoric, volume fixed
- isobaric, pressure fixed
- Isothermal vs adiabatic: the limits
- Specific heats of a gas
- Specific heats, the numbers
- Mayer's relation, per mole of ideal gas
- ratio of specific heats
- monatomic gas
- diatomic gas
- Heat engines and refrigerators
- Second law of thermodynamics
- Free expansion
- Reversible and irreversible processes
- Reversible
- Irreversible
- Carnot engine
- Carnot efficiency
- heats exchanged, reversible cycle
- efficiency, source T_H, sink T_C
- temperatures measured in
- Coefficient of performance
- refrigerator, heat drawn from the cold side
- Carnot refrigerator, between T_C and T_H
- Entropy and the direction of change
- Traps that cost marks
- Tricks that save time
How CapCompass uses this sheet
These notes are not a standalone PDF. CapCompass plans Physics chapter by chapter against your real exam dates and free hours, and when the plan reaches Thermodynamics the sheet opens inside the study block itself — at the page covering the sub-topic that block is on, with the timer still running. Revision arrives at the moment the plan says revise, instead of having to be gone looking for.