Warmth Disperses and Time Passes: The History of Heat

by Hans Christian Von Baeyer

Book Overview

If you want to know what's happening in the world, follow the heat. Why can't your coffee "steal" heat from the air to stay piping hot? Why can't Detroit make a car that's 100 percent efficient? 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, including why time inexorably runs in only one direction...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375753729
• ISBN13: 9780375753725
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Modern Library
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Warmth Disperses and Time Passes

Also titled Temperature and Time Flow Down in Europe; Bayer does an excellent job in explaining this physical phenomenon. I heartily recommend this book for armatures, students, and physicists wanting a fresh perspective.

Have fun with this book !

This is the best book about thermodynamics I have ever read ! In my opinion, it makes more to the understanding of this difficult and so misundertood discipline than any other "theoretical" book. Reading this is a funny and pleasant experience! It's like an adventure book, as it relives the history of the men who built the discipline of thermodynamics, and the curious and interesting circustances that brought them to their discoveries. some of that men and their histories I have never heard about!! Congratulations to Von Baeyer, who has done an outstanding and incredible job!!

Thermodynamics without tears or mathematics!

Buy this book if you have given any thought to why coffee cools and orange juice always gets warm. This extremely well written book deals with the most important thoughts some of the most outstanding scientific thinkers throughout history have given to our concepts of heat and energy. What is really striking about the book is that it does so in a readily understood manner without resorting to a single formula or diagram. As a relatively young student I was exposed to a course in thermodynamics which left enduring scars on me. I developed a life long distaste for the likes of Carnot, Clausius and Clapeyron. This book has shown me the errors of my ways. Every faculty member who teaches thermodynamics and every student who wishes to really understand thermodynamics should be required to read this book before entropy is ever discussed again in a classroom. The single concern that I have about the book is it's failure to mention the name or contributions of Willard Gibbs.

Delightful Demon

This is a delightful account of thermodynamics written by an author with profound understanding of the subject. Being a physics/math type myself, I was occasionally frustrated by the absence of diagrams and equations. However, this is a popular account and not meant to be all things to all people on this topic. I'm happy to recommend it.

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.