ME 301 Thermodynamics

The Laws of the Universe. Once you know entropy, it’s irreversible.

Thermodynamics is a process. One of applying balances, fluid models, and software for solution and optimization. This process is shown by the following tree diagram, which encompasses all but the efficiency comparisons of ME 301.

Below I’ve posted all of my lecture notes, which borrow from my mentors Steve Penoncello (University of Idaho), John Pfotenhauer, Sanford Klein, and particularly Greg Nellis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These notes are intentionally old-school and hand written for a reason. Recent studies have shown that students retain information and perform better on exams when forced to write notes in their own personal narrative. The real magic though happens outside of class in real homework problems, often inspired by my experiences, and qualitative discussion prompts based on questions posed by students over the years. Students never forget some of the in-class demonstrations.

The combination of these methods has been successful. Student retention is now over 85%. Performance on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam thermodynamics questions is 20% better than the national average. My course evaluations exceed 4.8/5.

Enjoy!