Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire

Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire
Author: Sadi Carnot
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2012-05-09
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0486174549

The title essay, along with other papers in this volume, laid the foundation of modern thermodynamics. Highly readable, "Reflections" contains no arguments that depend on calculus, examining the relation between heat and work in terms of heat in steam engines, air-engines, and an internal combustion machine. Translation of 1890 edition.

Entropy and Information

Entropy and Information
Author: Mikhail V. Volkenstein
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2009-10-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 303460078X

This is just...entropy, he said, thinking that this explained everything, and he repeated the strange word a few times. 1 ? Karel Capek , “Krakatit” This “strange word” denotes one of the most basic quantities of the physics of heat phenomena, that is, of thermodynamics. Although the concept of entropy did indeed originate in thermodynamics, it later became clear that it was a more universal concept, of fundamental signi?cance for chemistry and biology, as well as physics. Although the concept of energy is usually considered more important and easier to grasp, it turns out, as we shall see, that the idea of entropy is just as substantial—and moreover not all that complicated. We can compute or measure the quantity of energy contained in this sheet of paper, and the same is true of its entropy. Furthermore, entropy has remarkable properties. Our galaxy, the solar system, and the biosphere all take their being from entropy, as a result of its transferenceto the surrounding medium. Thereis a surprisingconnectionbetween entropyandinformation,thatis,thetotalintelligencecommunicatedbyamessage. All of this is expounded in the present book, thereby conveying informationto the readeranddecreasinghis entropy;butitis uptothe readertodecidehowvaluable this information might be.

Hemlock Grove

Hemlock Grove
Author: Brian McGreevy
Publisher: FSG Originals
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2012-03-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429942622

An exhilarating reinvention of the gothic novel, inspired by the iconic characters of our greatest myths and nightmares. Hemlock Grove is now a hit television series on Netflix. The body of a young girl is found mangled and murdered in the woods of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, in the shadow of the abandoned Godfrey Steel mill. A manhunt ensues—though the authorities aren't sure if it's a man they should be looking for. Some suspect an escapee from the White Tower, a foreboding biotech facility owned by the Godfrey family—their personal fortune and the local economy having moved on from Pittsburgh steel—where, if rumors are true, biological experiments of the most unethical kind take place. Others turn to Peter Rumancek, a Gypsy trailer-trash kid who has told impressionable high school classmates that he's a werewolf. Or perhaps it's Roman, the son of the late JR Godfrey, who rules the adolescent social scene with the casual arrogance of a cold-blooded aristocrat, his superior status unquestioned despite his decidedly freakish sister, Shelley, whose monstrous medical conditions belie a sweet intelligence, and his otherworldly control freak of a mother, Olivia. At once a riveting mystery and a fascinating revelation of the grotesque and the darkness in us all, Hemlock Grove has the architecture and energy to become a classic in its own right—and Brian McGreevy the talent and ambition to enthrall us for years to come.

The Janus Point

The Janus Point
Author: Julian Barbour
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2020-12-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0465095496

In a universe filled by chaos and disorder, one physicist makes the radical argument that the growth of order drives the passage of time -- and shapes the destiny of the universe. Time is among the universe's greatest mysteries. Why, when most laws of physics allow for it to flow forward and backward, does it only go forward? Physicists have long appealed to the second law of thermodynamics, held to predict the increase of disorder in the universe, to explain this. In The Janus Point, physicist Julian Barbour argues that the second law has been misapplied and that the growth of order determines how we experience time. In his view, the big bang becomes the "Janus point," a moment of minimal order from which time could flow, and order increase, in two directions. The Janus Point has remarkable implications: while most physicists predict that the universe will become mired in disorder, Barbour sees the possibility that order -- the stuff of life -- can grow without bound. A major new work of physics, The Janus Point will transform our understanding of the nature of existence.

A History of Thermodynamics

A History of Thermodynamics
Author: Ingo Müller
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2007-07-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3540462279

This book offers an easy to read, all-embracing history of thermodynamics. It describes the long development of thermodynamics, from the misunderstood and misinterpreted to the conceptually simple and extremely useful theory that we know today. Coverage identifies not only the famous physicists who developed the field, but also engineers and scientists from other disciplines who helped in the development and spread of thermodynamics as well.

The Forces of Matter

The Forces of Matter
Author: Michael Faraday
Publisher: Good Press
Total Pages: 78
Release: 2021-04-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

The Forces of Matter is a series of six scientific lectures by author and scientist Michael Faraday. Faraday, who was known as a popularizer of science presents lectures around the topics of gravitation, cohesion, chemical affinity, heat, magnetism and electricity.

Reason, Faith, and Revolution

Reason, Faith, and Revolution
Author: Terry Eagleton
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2009-04-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300155506

On the one hand, Eagleton demolishes what he calls the "superstitious" view of God held by most atheists and agnostics and offers in its place a revolutionary account of the Christian Gospel. On the other hand, he launches a stinging assault on the betrayal of this revolution by institutional Christianity. There is little joy here, then, either for the anti-God brigade -- Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in particular -- nor for many conventional believers. --Résumé de l'éditeur.