Entropy And The Second Law Of Thermodynamics

This book presents a clear and readable description of one of the most mysterious concepts of physics: Entropy. It contains a self-learning kit that guides the reader in understanding the concepts of entropy. In the first part, the reader is asked to play the familiar twenty-Question game. Once the reader feels comfortable with playing this game and acquires proficiency in playing the game effectively (intelligently), he or she will be able to capture the elusive and used-to-be mysterious concept of entropy. There will be no more speculative or arbitrary interpretations, nor “older” or “modern” views of entropy. This book will guide readers in choosing their own interpretation of entropy. Video intro on the Bestsellers on Entropy by Arieh Ben-Naim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5fOsKyOlHw Request Inspection Copy Contents:Introduction: From Heat Engines to Disorder, Information Spreading, Freedom, and More…Forget about Entropy for a While, Let us Go and Play iGamesThe Astounding Emergence of the Entropy of a Classical Ideal Gas out of Shannon's Measure of InformationExamples and Their Interpretations. Challenges for any Descriptor of EntropyFinally, Let Us Discuss the Most Mysterious Second Law of Thermodynamics Readership: Undergraduate and graduate students in chemistry and physics, academics and lay persons.

The Second Law, a cornerstone of thermodynamics, governs the average direction of dissipative, non-equilibrium processes. But it says nothing about their actual rates or the probability of fluctuations about the average. This interdisciplinary book, written and peer-reviewed by international experts, presents recent advances in the search for new non-equilibrium principles beyond the Second Law, and their applications to a wide range of systems across physics, chemistry and biology. Beyond The Second Law brings together traditionally isolated areas of non-equilibrium research and highlights potentially fruitful connections between them, with entropy production playing the unifying role. Key theoretical concepts include the Maximum Entropy Production principle, the Fluctuation Theorem, and the Maximum Entropy method of statistical inference. Applications of these principles are illustrated in such diverse fields as climatology, cosmology, crystal growth morphology, Earth system science, environmental physics, evolutionary biology and technology, fluid turbulence, microbial biogeochemistry, plasma physics, and radiative transport, using a wide variety of analytical and experimental techniques. Beyond The Second Law will appeal to students and researchers wishing to gain an understanding of entropy production and its central place in the science of non-equilibrium systems – both in detail and in terms of the bigger picture.

This is a sequel to the author’s book entitled “Entropy Demystified.” The aim is essentially the same as that of the previous book by the author: to present Entropy and the Second Law as simple, meaningful and comprehensible concepts. In addition, this book presents a series of “experiments” which are designed to help the reader discover entropy and the Second Law. While doing the experiments, the reader will encounter no unexpected results, and concepts of entropy and the Second Law will emerge naturally from these experiments without a tinge of mystery. These concepts are explained with the help of a few familiar ideas of probability and a 20-question game. The main “value” of the book is to introduce entropy and the Second Law in simple language which renders it accessible to any reader who can read and is curious about the basic laws of nature. The book is addressed to anyone interested in science and in understanding natural phenomenon. It will give the reader the opportunity to discover one of the most fundamental laws of physics — a law that has resisted complete understanding for over a century. The book is also designed to be enjoyable. There is no other book of its kind (except “Entropy Demystified” by the same author) that offers the reader a unique opportunity to discover one of the most profound laws — sometimes viewed as a mysterious law — without the tinge mystery. There are no pre-requisites expected of the readers; all that the reader is expected to do is to follow the experiments or imagine doing the experiments and reach the inevitable conclusions.

In Statistical Physics one of the ambitious goals is to derive rigorously, from statistical mechanics, the thermodynamic properties of models with realistic forces. Elliott Lieb is a mathematical physicist who meets the challenge of statistical mechanics head on, taking nothing for granted and not being content until the purported consequences have been shown, by rigorous analysis, to follow from the premises. The present volume contains a selection of his contributions to the field, in particular papers dealing with general properties of Coulomb systems, phase transitions in systems with a continuous symmetry, lattice crystals, and entropy inequalities. It also includes work on classical thermodynamics, a discipline that, despite many claims to the contrary, is logically independent of statistical mechanics and deserves a rigorous and unambiguous foundation of its own. The articles in this volume have been carefully annotated by the editors.

The advance of scienti?c thought in ways resembles biological and geologic transformation: long periods of gradual change punctuated by episodes of radical upheaval. Twentieth century physics witnessed at least three major shifts — relativity, quantum mechanics and chaos theory — as well many lesser ones. Now, st early in the 21 , another shift appears imminent, this one involving the second law of thermodynamics. Over the last 20 years the absolute status of the second law has come under increased scrutiny, more than during any other period its 180-year history. Since the early 1980’s, roughly 50 papers representing over 20 challenges have appeared in the refereed scienti?c literature. In July 2002, the ?rst conference on its status was convened at the University of San Diego, attended by 120 researchers from 25 countries (QLSL2002) [1]. In 2003, the second edition of Le?’s and Rex’s classic anthology on Maxwell demons appeared [2], further raising interest in this emerging ?eld. In 2004, the mainstream scienti?c journal Entropy published a special edition devoted to second law challenges [3]. And, in July 2004, an echo of QLSL2002 was held in Prague, Czech Republic [4]. Modern second law challenges began in the early 1980’s with the theoretical proposals of Gordon and Denur. Starting in the mid-1990’s, several proposals for experimentally testable challenges were advanced by Sheehan, et al. By the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, a rapid succession of theoretical quantum mechanical ? challenges were being advanced by C ́ apek, et al.