Zeroth law[edit]

The zeroth law of thermodynamics may be stated in the following form: If two systems are both in thermal equilibrium with a third then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.[1] The law is intended to allow the existence of an empirical parameter the temperature as a property of a system such that systems in thermal equilibrium with each other ha!e the same temperature. The law as stated here is compatible with the use of a particular physical body for example a mass of gas to match temperatures of other bodies but does not "ustify regarding temperature as a quantity that can be measured on a scale of real numbers. Though this !ersion of the law is one of the more commonly stated it is only one of a di!ersity of statements that are labeled as #the zeroth law# by competent writers. $ome statements go further so as to supply the important physical fact that temperature is one% dimensional that one can conceptually arrange bodies in real number sequence from colder to hotter.[1&][11][1'] (erhaps there exists no unique #best possible statement# of the #zeroth law# because there is in the literature a range of formulations of the principles of thermodynamics each of which call for their respecti!ely appropriate !ersions of the law. )lthough these concepts of temperature and of thermal equilibrium are fundamental to thermodynamics and were clearly stated in the nineteenth century the desire to explicitly number the abo!e law was not widely felt until *owler and +uggenheim did so in the 1,-&s long after the first second and third law were already widely understood and recognized. .ence it was numbered the zeroth law. The importance of the law as a foundation to the earlier laws is that it allows the definition of temperature in a non% circular way without reference to entropy its con"ugate !ariable. $uch a temperature definition is said to be /empirical/.[1-][10][11][12][13][14]