Thermodynamics for JEE Advanced Exam Preparation: Physics

By Aman Goel

Thermodynamics is an important chapter for both JEE Mains and JEE Advanced. The chapter is present in both Physics and Chemistry and there is only a minor difference between the two. Thermodynamics in Physics is more logical and extensive and covers a lot of small topics.

In Physics, thermodynamics is combined with Heat as a chapter. It is not a very tough chapter and requires a lot of practice. The theory is relatively very easy to understand and once you see solved examples you would be able to sail through the numerical portion easily. The chapter been given good weightage in JEE Advanced and will fetch you marks easily. So don’t skip this chapter and prepare for it well.

Important topics in Thermodynamics for JEE Advanced

Thermodynamics is a broad chapter and it has a lot of smaller topics that need to be studied in detail. Once you know these topics you can pick them one by one and complete them.

1. Laws of thermodynamics: This chapter will give you a basic introduction to thermodynamics and holds a major similarity with the thermodynamics of Chemistry; there is just a difference of sign of energy released or absorbed in the two. You need to be very careful else you would end up losing marks as the options of the questions would always have both signs. Go through the laws nicely as they would help you build the basics of thermodynamics properly.
2. Conduction, convection, and radiation: This chapter explains the transmission of heat and is a simpler one from the JEE Advanced point of view. The chapter is much smaller and easier to understand. The theory is more important for this one. Do match the portions of this chapter with the syllabus from the official site as many books give a lot of extra portions in this chapter.
3. Kinetic theory of gases: This chapter is also a simple one and just has a few basic details like the degree of freedom and the points of the kinetic theory which you need to first understand and then learn nicely.
4. Thermal expansion: This chapter is more numerical based and is really logical. You don’t need to mug up things at all. Understand the theory and practice questions of all the cases discussed in the chapter.
5. Calorimetry: This portion is somewhat very interesting and you would have done the basics of calorimetry in class 9^th or 10^th already and the JEE Advanced portion would be a more advanced version of it. There is hardly any theory to learn and all you need to do is understand the concept and then apply it to questions. Practice is really important for this chapter.

This broad classification breaks the huge portion of thermodynamics into smaller chunks and now you can treat the above five as small chapters and go ahead with acing thermodynamics for JEE Advanced.

Download JEE Advanced Sample Papers here

How to prepare thermodynamics for JEE Advanced

Thermodynamics is a big chapter and you need some books or coaching material to prepare the theory and practice questions as well. Here is a list of books that you can use to prepare thermodynamics for JEE Advanced:

1. Understanding Physics by DC Pandey: This book by Arihant publications is really good for thermodynamics and for physics in general. The book has ample theory to explain all the concepts in detail to you. The theory is followed by detailed and well explained solved examples. Once you are done with them you should do all the numerical given in the book. The book has a very good mix of questions and doesn’t take things to an extremely high level and caters to JEE Advanced in a decent manner. You should use this book to prepare thermodynamics from a very basic level.
2. Physics for Joint Entrance Exam by Cengage: The unit wise thermodynamics book of this series by Cengage is very similar to DC Pandey’s book and has good theory and questions. The theory of DC Pandey’s book is slightly better as compared to this one but it wins over when it comes to the numerical portion. Again the book won’t give you the very tough questions present in books like Irodov and will help you ace JEE Mains and perform decently in JEE Advanced as well.
3. Concepts of Physics by HC Verma: The book will help you understand the basics of thermodynamics and would also help you in developing a very logical approach to the chapter. However, the book won’t be sufficient alone for JEE and you would need one another book like DC Pandey or Cengage for a complete practice of numerical and solved examples. You can start the chapter by going through HC Verma and then use any of the above books to enhance your concepts and practice more.
4. Problems in General Physics by I.E. Irodov: This book should be your final step while preparing this chapter. You don’t have to do this book compulsorily. If you are done with the basics and are totally thorough with thermodynamics and still have time left then you can attempt some questions from this book. The book is really tough and not all questions would be relevant for JEE Advanced. You should use this book with some other basic book as it cannot help you in understanding the chapter by itself.

You can use any of the above books and prepare yourself for gaining easy marks in thermodynamics. Here are a few tips to prepare thermodynamics for JEE Advanced:

1. Don’t do unnecessary topics and stick to the syllabus.
2. Practice a lot of questions and don’t learn big values of all constants which will already be given in the exam. See last year’s papers for the same.
3. Remember all the laws given the chapters and interpret them in a very logical way. You might get conceptual questions from chapters like transfer of heat.
4. Remember to solve the previous year’s papers to familiarize yourself with the kind of questions that can be asked.
5. Make short notes while preparing the chapter so that you can use them during revision towards the end.

Don’t panic, the chapter is easy and you can do it easily with some motivation and effort. All the best!

About the Author:

Aman Goel is co-founder at a Tech Start-up. He holds a BTech in Computer Science Engineering from IIT Bombay with a JEE Advanced AIR 33 (Year 2013).

During his free time, he enjoys writing articles/blogs. He is an Entrepreneur, Coder, Speed-cuber, gamer, and fan of Air crash investigation!

 

 

 

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