Yumin Zhang

Yumin Zhang is a professor in the Department of Engineering & Technology, Southeast Missouri State University. In 1981, he was admitted into the Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University in China, and his career goal was in the field of aerospace engineering. However, his dream was shattered by the course of thermodynamics, since he had greattrouble learning it. His experience was not an exception; generations of engineering students have studied thermodynamics in college and...See more

Yumin Zhang is a professor in the Department of Engineering & Technology, Southeast Missouri State University. In 1981, he was admitted into the Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University in China, and his career goal was in the field of aerospace engineering. However, his dream was shattered by the course of thermodynamics, since he had greattrouble learning it. His experience was not an exception; generations of engineering students have studied thermodynamics in college and many of them felt confused by the subject matter. In fall 2008, Yumin received a teaching assignment in a thermodynamics course and therefore had to relearn it. After a quarter of a century, he had become more mature from his experience in learning and research and therefore he found that thermodynamics was not hard at all; instead, it was very beautiful. Survey results from his students in 2016 showed that this course was not more difficult than other engineering courses, such as Engineering Mechanics--Dynamics. Therefore, he would like to share his understanding and approaches with more students and hopes that this book can help them overcome the challenges of learning thermodynamics. See less