Thermodynamics is a branch of
physics concerned with
heat and
temperature and their relation to
energy and
work. It defines
macroscopic variables, such as
internal energy,
entropy, and
pressure, that partly describe a body of matter or
radiation. It states that the behavior of those variables is subject to general constraints, that are common to all materials, beyond the peculiar properties of particular materials. These general constraints are expressed in the four laws of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics describes the bulk behavior of the body, not the microscopic behaviors of the very large numbers of its microscopic constituents, such as molecules. The basic results of thermodynamics rely on the existence of idealized states of
thermodynamic equilibrium. Its laws are explained by
statistical mechanics, in terms of the microscopic constituents.