A Contemporary View on Carnot’s Réflexions

Meyn JP (2024)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2024

Journal

Book Volume: 26

Journal Issue: 12

URI: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/12/1002

DOI: 10.3390/e26121002

Open Access Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/e26121002

Abstract

Entropy and energy had not yet been introduced to physics by the time Carnot wrote his seminal Réflexions. Scholars continue to discuss what he really had in mind and what misconceptions he might have had. Actually, his work can be read as a correct introduction to the physics of heat engines when the term calorique is replaced by entropy and entropy is used as the other fundamental thermal quantity besides temperature. Carnot’s concepts of falling entropy as an analogy to the waterfall, and the separation of real thermal processes into reversible and irreversible processes are adopted. Some details of Carnot’s treatise are ignored, but the principal ideas are quoted and assumed without modification. With only two thermal quantities, temperature and entropy, modern heat engines can be explained in detail. Only after the principal function of heat engines is developed is energy introduced as physical quantity in order to compare thermal engines with mechanical and electrical engines and, specifically, to calculate efficiency.

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How to cite

APA:

Meyn, J.-P. (2024). A Contemporary View on Carnot’s Réflexions. Entropy, 26(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/e26121002

MLA:

Meyn, Jan-Peter. "A Contemporary View on Carnot’s Réflexions." Entropy 26.12 (2024).

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