Tag Archives: Carnot

Why I paid $100 for a Vonnegut quote

Publisher: “Before we go to print, we just wanted to make sure you got permissions for the epigraphs in your book.” Me: “What’s an epigraph?” As I was traveling through the final stages of publishing my book, I learned that there are two approaches to using a quote. One is to embed the quote inContinue reading “Why I paid $100 for a Vonnegut quote”

The Road to Entropy – Clausius undaunted

Have you ever experienced that wondrous “Eureka!” moment of insight when you’ve discovered some hidden secret of nature? Archimedes did when he realized that the volume of water displaced is equal to the volume of the body submerged. Kekulé did when discovered benzene’s structure. Hubble did when he discovered that the stars are all movingContinue reading “The Road to Entropy – Clausius undaunted”

The Road to Entropy – James Joule and the power of his curiosity (video)

James Joule could have observed what he did and then done nothing with it. Instead, he became driven to understand and explain it and so discovered the mechanical equivalent of heat, a forerunner of the concept of energy and the 1st law of Thermodynamics. His story is a good one, an inspiring one, an exampleContinue reading “The Road to Entropy – James Joule and the power of his curiosity (video)”

The Road to Entropy – Sadi Carnot’s use of analogy to create his “flawed” masterpiece (video)

The commercialization of the high-pressure steam engines by the Cornish Engineers of Britain inspired Sadi Carnot, a French military engineer, to analyze these engines and seek the theories to guide their improvement. If you’re interested in doing a deep dive into Sadi Carnot’s work, here are two excellent references. I go into much more depthContinue reading “The Road to Entropy – Sadi Carnot’s use of analogy to create his “flawed” masterpiece (video)”

The Road to Entropy – Phil Hosken on Richard Trevithick and the invention of the high-pressure steam engine (video)

As shared in my previous post (here), the historical road to entropy started with Denis Papin’s development of the piston-in-cylinder assembly and Thomas Newcomen’s and James Watt’s subsequent efforts to commercialize and continuously improve fire engines or atmospheric engines built around this assembly. Steam at atmospheric pressure was employed in these engines, not as aContinue reading “The Road to Entropy – Phil Hosken on Richard Trevithick and the invention of the high-pressure steam engine (video)”

The Road to Entropy – The Newcomen and Watt “Steam” Engines (videos)

The road to entropy began with the 18th century development of the “steam” engine by Thomas Newcomen and James Watt. But steam was not the driving force in these engines. So what was? And what was the purpose of the steam? Check out this video for the answers: Note the shout-out in the video toContinue reading “The Road to Entropy – The Newcomen and Watt “Steam” Engines (videos)”