Product Description

You arrive at your office and unpack your breakfast from the local deli. The piping-hot coffee and chilly orange juice you purchased just minutes ago are now both disappointingly lukewarm. Why can't the coffee "steal" heat from the juice to stay hot? Why does even the most state-of-the-art car operate at a mere 30 percent efficiency--and why can't Detroit ever better the odds, no matter what space age materials we invent? Why can't some genius make a perpetual motion machine? The answers lie in the field of thermodynamics, the study of heat, which turns out to be the key to an astonishing number of scientific puzzles.
        If you want to know what's happening in the physical world, you've got to follow the heat. In Maxwell's Demon: Why Warmth Disperses and Time Passes, physics professor Hans Christian von Baeyer tells the story of heat through the lives of the scientists who discovered it, most notably James Clerk Maxwell, whose demonic invention has bedeviled generations of physics students with its light-fingered attempts to flout the laws of thermodynamics. An intelligent, submicroscopic gremlin who could sort atoms as they
flew at him, Maxwell's Demon would effectively make an impossible task--forcing heat to flow backward--possible. Explaining why the Demon can't have his day has been an intellectual gauntlet taken up by a century and a half of the world's most brilliant scientists, whose discoveries Professor von Baeyer vividly etches.
        The centuries-old discipline of thermodynamics informs today's most cutting-edge research in chaos, complexity, and the grand unified theory of everything--physics' Holy Grail. Even more amazing, the study of heat turns out to explain something seemingly unrelated--time, and why it can run in only one direction.
        With his trademark elegant prose, eye for lively detail, and gift for lucid explanation, Professor von Baeyer turns the contemplation of a cooling teacup into a beguiling portrait of the birth of a science with relevance to almost every aspect of our lives. Readers will find themselves rooting for Maxwell's ever-mischievous Demon even as they come to appreciate that he is doomed to failure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #450829 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07
• Released on: 1998-06-23
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 207 pages

Amazon.com Review
What's the most depressing law of physics? Why, the second law of thermodynamics, of course! In a nutshell: entropy (or disorder) is always increasing, leading to the inevitable "heat death of the universe." Quite a dismal prospect, but even the most optimistic don't expect to be around when it all ends, long after our sun burns out. In Maxwell's Demon: Why Warmth Disperses and Time Passes, physics professor Hans Christian von Baeyer tells the story of the discovery and development of the second law of thermodynamics. The book is named for James Clerk Maxwell's little imaginary genius, who could make your latte boil out of your travel mug given a chance. Von Baeyer treats us to a wide-ranging survey of the early days of thermodynamics, the demon's multiple deaths and rebirths, and an explanation of why entropy's not such a bad thing after all.

Von Baeyer has a terrific knack for knowing what's interesting about his topic and sharing that interest through examples, quotations, and personal stories. Whether you're reading about the exploits of Count Rumford, who established that heat is not a substance, or the author's daughters, who perform hundreds of coin flips to satisfy themselves about the statistical nature of reality, you'll pick up the author's enthusiasm for science and thermodynamics. The broad scope, covering over 700 years in just over 200 pages, serves its subject well, as the law took a long time to reach its present form. If you're looking for a fascinating scientific history, or just an excuse for a messy room, Maxwell's Demon is the right choice. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly
Von Baeyer, a physicist at the College of William and Mary, invites the reader to travel with the illuminati of thermodynamics along their zig-zag path to an understanding of heat, energy and entropy. This improbable journey leads readers through a cannon factory, a brewery and a ship anchored off Jakarta. Although he does a fine job of describing the science, he also introduces readers to the inner worlds and belief systems of those who created the conceptual latticework of thermodynamics. By pointing up the follies and misconceptions of even the most revered masters of science (such as Lord Kelvin's stubborn rejection of evolution), Von Baeyer allows the nonscientific reader to realize the extent to which scientific ideas come about as successive approximations to truth. Von Baeyer's title invokes his sometime traveling companion, a puckish sprite created by James Clerk Maxwell. The function of Maxwell's demon is to reverse the natural order of thingsAto make heat flow from cold to hot, to increase the degree of order in a systemAall without expending energy. But he could also be a metaphor for the emotional cost of imagination, the "dark side" of science, the imaginative obsession that led to the madness of Robert Mayer and the suicide of Ludwig Boltzmann. Von Baeyer's writing style is so compelling that it would induce even the most scientifically naive reader to care about the laws of thermodynamics.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
A hot cup of coffee will cool down over time, but most people probably don't understand the laws of thermodynamics that make this happen. Von Baeyer uses common sense and familiar observations as a tool for exploring deep scientific principles.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Brillian connection between information and thermodynamics
"Maxwell's Demon" is a thought provoking examination of the connection of information and thermodynamics. The demon was invented by Maxwell, one of the founders of thermodynamics and electromagnetic field theory, to challenge the Second Law of Thermodynamics: you can't get run an engine from a heat source which is at one temperature. The little demon uses his intellect to apparently beat the Second Law by sorting hot from cold molecules, and then running an engine between the resulting two temperature sources! In the process the Demon has thrown down an intellectual gauntlet that challenges scientists and information theorists to this day. In the process of trying to "kill" the demon, the foundations of statistical mechanics, thermodynamics and information theory have been strenghtened and deepened. And the demon? He is never quite dead! In modern form, he has gained new life at IBM and Los Alamos and will at least be a continued source of challenge and scientific progress. The author is entertaining and erudite, and your time will be well spent reading this clever book.

Great book...
Anytime you can read a book and it can take an idea you have held about a certain subject (i.e. thermodynamics) and give you a new paradigm, you have found a good book. This is one of them.

It just tweaked my understanding enough to view it in a new, more clear, way. It may not be the most intellectually challenging book and it may be a little light but...so what?

Highly recommended.

Former student highly recommends this down-to-earth view
One hasn't truly experienced a college level physics class unless he has had one taught by Dr. Von Baeyer. Often a sight around Williamsburg on his 10 speed, he is a treasured professor to have teach the freshman level class. He, both in class and in this book, has an uncanny ability to explain a most complex physics problem using real world situations and simple verbiage. This book examines the world of thermodynamics with the simple language and humor that former students remember about this wonderful man. It is truly a pleasant read, and is a great diversion away from the stale texts that often permeate science bookshelves whether virtual or not.