TEMPERATURE, ENTROPY, AND KINETIC-THEORY

The relation between the concepts of temperature and entropy and the k inetic theory of gases is discussed, with particular attention to the aspects which are frequently treated as obvious or not even mentioned. In order to show that the usual thermodynamic relations are by no mea ns obvious and may be contradictory, the model of a discrete velocity gas is used. It is also shown that the usual relation between the entr opy rate and the heat supplied to a gas is not valid (even close to eq uilibrium) unless the theory is Galilei invariant (which is obviously not the case for a discrete velocity gas) and must be replaced by anot her one that eliminates all the paradoxical aspects of the matter.