Energy and the unexpected / Keith J. Laidler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Laidler, Keith J. (Keith James), 1916-2003.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Force and energy.

Chance.

Chaotic behavior in systems.

Thermodynamics.

Physical Description:

xiii, 146 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.

Summary:

Only in the early 19th century did scientists recognize that energy is a distinct physical quality. Since then however, it has played a pivotal role in the advancement and the understanding of science and in technology. From the steam engine to the equation e=mc2 and beyond, the concept of energy offers an essential key to our understanding of the Universe. In this entertaining and highly readable book, Professor Laidler explains the concept of energy and its characteristics as they were discovered over the past two centuries. He describes how energy transformations as interpreted by the second law of thermodynamics are not absolute but can only be understood in terms of chance and probability. After looking at energy on a small scale and then at the scale of the Universe itself, he shows how these topics are linked with chaos theory according to which the unexpected is inevitable.

Contents:

A Few Points About Mathematics xi

1. Steam engines and artillery 1

2. Red blood and electric motors 15

3. Steam engines revisited 28

4. The second law of thermodynamics 34

5. Maxwell's demon 44

6. Chance and the distribution of energy 59

7. Packets of energy 72

8. Energy equals mc[superscript 2] 86

9. Energy and the universe 101

10. Chaos: the science of the unexpected 124.

ISBN:

0198525168

OCLC:

50269941