While the perpetual motion machine breaks the 1st law of thermodynamics, Maxwell’s Demon breaks the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Even though both ideas have been proven to be wrong, their very idea helped not only define the laws of heat and their representation, but also provoke the conception of marvelous other ideas which prove to be right. This book is more than an exposition of Maxwell’s Demon. This book is about the history and evolution of the what heat is heat while containing many epistemological insights.

The battles of what heat is, took heat out of the context of chemistry and into the context of physics. From heat as a substance to heat as a motion. When heat could not be controlled with certainty, it forced the field of physics to seek probabilities. With the death of many theories came about the life of others such as the significance of heat being information. Maxwell’s Demon incapacity to break the 2nd law of thermodynamics, produced a new life in the field on information.

The book is well written but many transitions lack gumption. The authors lead the reader into the discovery of an insight, but transition is subtle causing the discovery to be underwhelming and easy to not misunderstand. Some parts of the book are difficult to understand as what seems to be simple explanation can make a sudden jump.
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von Baeyer here is the indigo synthesizng guys grandson , was college roomates with John Giorno ( of Warhol's film of him being asleep for five hours ) And the book is very good too ( )

von Baeyer here is the indigo synthesizng guys grandson , was college roomates with John Giorno ( of Warhol's film of him being asleep for five hours ) And the book is very good too ( )

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.)

(Original review from my review blog.) ( )

von Baeyer, Hans Christian. Maxwell's Demon: Why Warmth Disperses and Time Passes. Random House, New York, 1998. Great book. It's rare to find a popular science book that covers something I don't know, especially something in Physics. But I don't know thermodynamics, and von Baeyer does a great job explaining its importance. I have a better notion of entropy and its importance, and I have a better idea of the exciting discoveries that can still be made in this field. Furthermore, I have some items I want to follow up on. You really can't ask for anything more in a science book. I should drop a letter to ol' von Baeyer, W&M professor, and let him know how much I enjoyed his book.