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

• Autore: Ben-Naim Arieh <1934->
• Pubblicazione: Hackensack, N.J., : World Scientific, 2008
• Edizione: Expanded ed.
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (260 p.)
• Disciplina: 536/.73
• Soggetto topico: Entropy; Second law of thermodynamics
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Preface; Programs for Simulating Some of the Games in the Book; Program 1: Binary dice; Program 2: Regular dice; Program 3: Card deck; Program 4: Simulation of expansion of ideal gas; Program 5: Simulation of mixing two ideal gases; Program 6: Find the hidden coin; Program 7: Generating the normal distribution; 1 Introduction, and a Short History of the Second Law of Thermodynamics; 1.1. The Non-Atomistic Formulation of the Second Law; 1.2. The Atomistic Formulation of the Second Law; 2 A Brief Introduction to Probability Theory, Information Theory, and all the Rest ; 2.1. The Classical Definition2.2. The Relative Frequency Definition; 2.3. Independent Events and Conditional Probability; 2.4. Three Caveats; 2.4.1. Conditional probability and subjective probability; 2.4.2. Conditional probability and cause and effect; 2.4.3. Conditional probability and joint probability; 2.5. A Teaspoon of Information Theory; 2.6. A Tip of a Teaspoon of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry; 2.7. A Matter of Lottery; 2.8. A Matter of Order-Disorder; 2.9. A Challenging Problem; 2.10. Answers to the Problems; 2.10.1. Answers to the roulette problems ; 2.10.2. Answer to "a matter of lottery"2.10.3. Answer to "a matter of order-disorder"; 2.10.4. Answer to "a challenging problem"; 3 First Let Us Play with Real Dice; 3.1. One Die; 3.2. Two Dice; 3.3. Three Dice; 3.4. Four Dice and More; 4 Let's Play with Simpli.ed Dice and have a Preliminary Grasp of the Second Law; 4.1. Two Dice; N = 2; 4.2. Four Dice; N = 4; 4.3. Ten Dice; N = 10; 4.4. Hundred Dice; N = 100; 4.5. Thousand Dice; N = 1000; 4.6. Ten Thousand Dice; N = 104 and Beyond; 5 Experience the Second Law with all Your Five Senses; 5.1. See it with your Visual Sense ; 5.2. Smell it with your Olfactory Sense5.3. Taste it with your Gustatory Sense; 5.4. Hear it with your Auditory Sense; 5.5. Feel it with your Touch (Tactile) Sense; 6 Finally, Grasp it with Your Common Sense; 7 Translating from the Dice-World to the Real World; 7.1. The Correspondence with the Expansion Process; 7.2. The Correspondence with the Deassimilation Process; 7.3. Summary of the Evolution of the System towards the Equilibrium State; 7.4. Mixing of Three Components; 7.5. Heat Transfer from a Hot to a Cold Gas; 7.6. Test Your Understanding of the Second Law ; 8 Re.ections on the Status of the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a Law of Physics8.1. What is the Source of the Mystery?; 8.2. The Association of Entropy with "Disorder"; 8.3. The Association of Entropy with Missing Information; 8.4. Is the Second Law Intimately Associated with the Arrow of Time?; 8.5. Is the Second Law of Thermodynamics a Law of Physics?; 8.6. Can We Do Away with the Second Law?; References and Suggested Reading; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: In this unique book, the reader is invited 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 most textbooks on 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 guides the read
• Titolo autorizzato: Entropy demystified
• ISBN: 1-281-96829-3; 9786611968298; 981-283-226-2
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910821488503321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II