Graphical Thermodynamics and the Works of J. Willard Gibbs

In this paper aspects of the first two papers written by Gibbs on the topic of thermodynamics are discussed. These early papers set the stage for Gibbs’ major work on thermodynamics. His use of graphical methods and geometry are reviewed and display the reasoning behind his mathematical construction of thermodynamics. This paper ends with later extensions of his work to interesting graphical plots as well as an example taken from his later work on Statistical Mechanics.