Intermediate Thermodynamics
Intermediate Thermodynamics covering fundamentals, phase and chemical equilibria, availability, and thermodynamic relationships.
Summary
Past student reviews · John Pfotenhauer
Homework grading was frustrating due to point deductions for insignificant details, while exam grading was lenient.
What you’ll be able to do
Characterize a fluid’s deviation from its ideal gas behavior
Calculate the exergy for a system at any thermodynamic state away from the dead state
Model the relationship between thermodynamic properties in terms of equations of state (EOS) and fundamental property relations
Characterize combustion processes that include water vapor in both reactant and product streams
Derive and solve the time dependent energy and entropy balance equations for closed and open systems
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapM E 361 or CBE 311, or graduate/professional standing, or member of Engineering Guest Students
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
JOHN PFOTENHAUER is recorded teaching in Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2020, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
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Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Past student reviews · John Pfotenhauer
John Pfotenhauer was competent but often semi-prepared, leading to lectures derailed by hard-to-locate math errors in his notes.
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.72 GPA, 88.0% A/AB (n=25 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.83 GPA, 88.9% A/AB (n=27 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.77 GPA, 80.8% A/AB (n=26 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Past student reviews · John Pfotenhauer
Homework grading was frustrating due to point deductions for insignificant details, while exam grading was lenient.
Past student reviews · John Pfotenhauer
One student highly recommended the class, stating that Pfotenhauer made sure they understood the material and some lectures were mind-blowing.
Topics
- Thermodynamic fundamentals, phase and chemical equilibria, availability, and thermodynamic relationships
- Equations of state and fundamental property relations
- Combustion processes involving water vapor
- Time-dependent energy and entropy balances for closed and open systems
Skills
- Characterize fluid deviation from ideal gas behavior
- Calculate exergy for systems away from the dead state
- Model thermodynamic property relationships using EOS and fundamental relations
- Characterize combustion processes with water vapor in reactants and products
- Derive and solve time-dependent energy and entropy balance equations
Grades
Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
Grades over time
Through Fall 2025
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.
Selected offering source records
No offering records for the selected term.
Raw records
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Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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"observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
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