and
will all be mere ratios or abstract numbers.[23]
[23]See C. V. BURTON'S article in Philosophical Transactions, Vol. 23-24, 1887.
PART III
PHYSICAL INTERPRETATIONS
SECTION A
OF THE SIMPLE REVERSIBLE OPERATIONS IN THERMODYNAMICS
Change under Constant Volume
We found above that the entropy of a state was precisely defined in a physical way by the number of complexions of that state. Now let us see what happens to this number of complexions when an ideal gas experiences some of the simpler changes, of a reversible (non-cyclical) character. We will begin with the case in which the volume of the gas remains constant while its temperature rises, the final state of the gas having a higher temperature than its initial state.
We see from Eq. (7), [p. 51], that
