State functions, also called "state variables",thermodynamic variables, state quantities, or functions of state, describe the momentary condition of a thermodynamic system. For a passage from one given thermodynamic state to another, whatever may be the intermediate conditions between the initial and final thermodynamic states, the total change in the value of any thermodynamic state variable will be the same. For a continuous process, this means that incremental changes in such variables are exact differentials, fully determined by their initial and final thermodynamic states.
Examples include entropy, pressure, temperature, volume, etc.
Various thermodynamic diagrams have been developed to model the transitions between thermodynamic states.
Read more about this topic: Thermodynamic State
Famous quotes containing the words state and/or functions:
“Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“If photography is allowed to stand in for art in some of its functions it will soon supplant or corrupt it completely thanks to the natural support it will find in the stupidity of the multitude. It must return to its real task, which is to be the servant of the sciences and the arts, but the very humble servant, like printing and shorthand which have neither created nor supplanted literature.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)