Customer Reviews

Maxwell's Demon: Why Warmth Disperses and Time Passes

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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.

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.

The writing is in the style of Newsweek or Time magazine. That is, it is a popular and accessible style, but one that does not shrink from embellishing a tale with irrelevant (and fictional) details in an attempt to make it seem more interesting.

It is impossible for Von Baeyer to know what Mayer, Boltzmann or Maxwell may have been feeling at any particular juncture in their lives. Although the context within which they reasoned (e.g., the cramped and uncomfortable conditions at sea under which Mayer was working) is important to understand and interesting, Von Baeyer frequently digresses into aggrandized accounts of the intimate details. These are best left to the physicists' own words, and where direct quotes are provided, this book is at its best.

This text is a summary of the historical development of the laws of thermodynamics. It touches on the careers of Newton, Einstein, those mentioned above and others. Because it is broad in its historical sweep, but narrow in its focus on thermodynamics, it is a valuable tool for establishing an intuitive insight into a complicated and sometimes inaccessible subject. Therefore, its greatest value is as an introduction, and a good source of further historical readings.

I have read many popular physics books and I just don't see fresh perspectives taken by the authors. There are a few interesting points in this book, but it is the same old stuff, for the most part. I like that this book got right to the point. Some popular physics books, as well as many other genres, believe that a book is not a book unless it is 300-400 pages, even if the author has to add filler to get there. For me, "getting on with it" is a big plus. I have too much that I would like to read and not enough time to do it.

I would formally recommend this book to anyone who: A) is in middle school, HS, college (non-physics) or an adult who has not read much in the way of popular physics. (This is a 4 and a half star book for those folks.) B) anyone who has read popular physics books but have not read one that focuses on thermodynamics.

I will tell you the one huge complaint I had with this book. On the cover, it says "Why Time Passes." If the author answered this question, you would find the philosophy community rolling over cars as if they had just won the Super Bowl, or something. This is a bogus claim, as the book makes no progress on this matter, by any means. I am not sure what has endowed physicists with hubris enough to make wildly inaccurate philosophical claims, but it seems to be a custom at this point. Davies and Reichenbach had it correct when they presented their positions that time was assymetric in a structural sense, making sure not to confuse subject time consciousness with a (mathematical) physical description of time (aka "physically real" time). Assymetric structure does not necessarily lend itself to the answering of the question, "Why does time go one way and not the other." That the world might begin moving in the opposite direction of time, toward a state of lower entropy, is a philosophically viable possibility. If one were to say, "Assymetry therefore time moves in this direction," why couldn't the opposite be just as easily claimed?

If you are a physicist with any real concern for the philosophical accuracy of your thoughts, you may find this book thermodynamically useful. Plenty of ergs with which to warm your feet while reading a philosophically compitent physics book!

The laws of thermodynamics are definitely amongst the most important and significant parts of physics. The second law (entropy or disorder will increase over time) particularly is a curious beast: it's obvious (put a warm tea cup on the table and it will cool down), but also very hard to explain.

Maxwell's demon, a jolly little creature invented by James Clerk Maxwell, was a thought experiment that's threatened the second law many times, by forcing the heat to move in the wrong direction. Von Baeyer explains all about the demon and the several attempts for its life while going through the history of thermodynamics.

It's a fascinating history with good characters and a nice, easy-to-read style to it. If you're at all interested in thermodynamics - and you should be - this is a good introduction. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)

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.

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.

I am very happy with this transaction. The book arrived in very good condition and on time. I would certainly purchase another product from this seller in the future.

While von Baeyer's discussion of Clerk Maxwell and his "demon" is quite interesting and, for the most part, informative, he ignores the dramatic appearance of the demon in modern literature. Thomas Pynchon, whose superior fiction focusses on entropy, spends untold brilliant words discussing Maxwell's demon in "The Crying of Lot 49," his most accessible work. A chapter devoted to Pynchon's theories and how well they correllate with Maxwell's and, perhaps, an imaginary debate between Pynchon and Maxwell, would have added immeasurably to the faint enjoyment I derived from the book. He also missed the clear musical salute to Maxwell by the Beatles in "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," which allegorically compares the demon to English common law.