Thomson's formulation of the second law for macroscopic and finite work sources
1
Institute for Theoretical Physics, Valckenierstraat 65, 1018 XE Amsterdam, Netherlands
2
Yerevan Physics Institute, Alikhanian Brothers St. 2, Yerevan 375036, Armenia
3
PhT, CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Entropy 2004, 6(1), 30-37; https://doi.org/10.3390/e6010030
Submission received: 8 August 2003
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Accepted: 30 December 2003
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Published: 18 March 2004
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quantum Limits to the Second Law of Thermodynamics)
Abstract
Thomson's formulation of the second law states: no work can be extracted from an equilibrium system through a cyclic process. A simple, general proof is presented for the case of macroscopic sources of work. Next the setup is generalized towards situations, where the corresponding work-source is not macroscopic. It is shown that using such a source one can extract energy from an equilibrium system by means of a cyclic process. However, this extraction is accompanied by an entropy increase of the source, in a manner resembling the Clausius inequality.
Keywords:
second law; work; entropy
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MDPI and ACS Style
Allahverdyan, A.E.; Balian, R.; Nieuwenhuizen, T.M. Thomson's formulation of the second law for macroscopic and finite work sources. Entropy 2004, 6, 30-37. https://doi.org/10.3390/e6010030
AMA Style
Allahverdyan AE, Balian R, Nieuwenhuizen TM. Thomson's formulation of the second law for macroscopic and finite work sources. Entropy. 2004; 6(1):30-37. https://doi.org/10.3390/e6010030
Chicago/Turabian StyleAllahverdyan, Armen E., Roger Balian, and Theo M. Nieuwenhuizen. 2004. "Thomson's formulation of the second law for macroscopic and finite work sources" Entropy 6, no. 1: 30-37. https://doi.org/10.3390/e6010030
