Constantin Carathéodory and the axiomatic thermodynamics

Journal of Mathematical Chemistry, 2000, Vol. 28, Nos. 1–3, pp. 313–324.The birth, raise, development and fortunes of a fundamental theory in thermodynamics, the axiomatic thermodynamics, a creation of Constantin Carathéodory, is thoroughly presented together with a summary of Carathéodory’s biography. Axiomatic thermodynamics is centered around some interesting properties of Pfaffian differential equations, which are here introduced and used for some well-known cases in thermodynamics.