On 11/21/2014 10:39 PM, LizR wrote:
Is it possible to explain to a person of modest intelligence such as myself exacty how
you're violating the 2nd law?
(Otherwise I may feel compelled to quote Arthur Eddington...)
Loschmidt's idea was that an isolated column of gas in a gravitational field would develop
a temperature gradient, warmer at the top. So you could place some working fluid at the
bottom, get it warm, then move it to top and run a heat engine off the temperature
different getting some increment of work and dumping some heat into the upper part of the
column. But after some time the gradient will be reestablished and you can lower the
working fluid and repeat the process. Thus you will extract work from a system that is in
equilibrium. Of course the gas in the column will get cooler as you extract energy, so
it's not really clear to me that the 2nd law is violated. Gravity is different in that
gravitating systems have negative specific heat.
Brent
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