1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910450707003321

Autore

Ben-Naim Arieh <1934->

Titolo

Entropy demystified [[electronic resource] ] : the second law reduced to plain common sense / / Arieh Ben-Naim

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Hackensack, N.J., : World Scientific, c2007

ISBN

1-281-12113-4

9786611121136

981-277-069-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (248 p.)

Disciplina

536/.73

Soggetti

Entropy

Second law of thermodynamics

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-221).

Nota di contenuto

Preface; Contents; 1 Introduction, and a Short History of the Second Law of Thermodynamics; 2 A Brief Introduction to Probability Theory, Information Theory, and all the Rest; 3 First Let Us Play with Real Dice; 4 Let's Play with Simplified Dice and have a Preliminary Grasp of the Second Law; 5 Experience the Second Law with all Your Five Senses; 6 Finally, Grasp it with Your Common Sense; 7 Translating from the Dice-World to the Real World; 8 Reflections on the Status of the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a Law of Physics; References and Suggested Reading

Sommario/riassunto

In this unique book, Arieh Ben-Naim invites the reader to experience the joy of appreciating something which has eluded understanding for many years - entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The book has a two-pronged message: first, that the Second Law is not "infinitely incomprehensible" as commonly stated in textbooks of thermodynamics but can, in fact, be comprehended through sheer common sense; and second, that entropy is not a mysterious quantity that has "resisted understanding" but a simple, familiar and easily comprehensible concept. Written in an accessible style, the book guid