The third law of thermodynamics

The Third Law was written almost fifty years ago, and a lot has happened in low temperature science since that time. However, I feel that this book is not just of historical interest. Certainly if your aim is to find out about to the 3^rd law of thermodynamics, then this book is still a useful resource. Since it is devoted to one subject it is quicker to read than a more general thermodynamics textbook. Naturally it has quite a bit of mathematics - at the level of an undergrauate science student, but I felt that this isn't too overwhelming and that there's plenty of non-mathematical discussion.

From the start the book takes the point of view of statistical rather than classical thermodynamics. Wilks looks at statistical approaches to the 2^nd law, considering for example how the number of degrees of freedom of a system relates to its thermodynamical properties, and then goes on to show how these approaches may also be applied to the 3^rd law. There is plenty of material on low temperature thermodynamics, exploring concepts such as frozen-in disorder, the thermodynamics of chemical reactions, and the behaviour of the different isotopes of helium. The book concludes with a chapter explaining the unattainability of absolute zero.