Who built the world's first vacuum pump in 1650?
Otto von Guericke built the world's first vacuum pump in 1650. He demonstrated a vacuum using his Magdeburg hemispheres to disprove Aristotle's supposition that nature abhors a vacuum.
Questions about Thermodynamics
Short answers, pulled from the story.
When did Sadi Carnot publish Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire?
Sadi Carnot published Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire in 1824. The book outlined basic energetic relations between the Carnot engine and motive power and marked the start of thermodynamics as a modern science.
What is absolute zero temperature in degrees Celsius?
Absolute zero is minus 273.15 degrees Celsius. The third law states that as the temperature of a system approaches this value, all processes cease and entropy approaches a minimum value.
Which scientists developed statistical mechanics in the late 19th century?
Ludwig Boltzmann set out foundations of statistical thermodynamics alongside James Clerk Maxwell and Max Planck. Rudolf Clausius and J. Willard Gibbs also contributed to this field which relates microscopic properties of individual atoms to bulk properties observable on human scale.
How does the second law of thermodynamics define entropy increase?
The second law refers to a system of matter and radiation initially with inhomogeneities in temperature where entropy increases as constraints are removed. It eventually reaches a maximum value at thermodynamic equilibrium expressing general irreversibility of transitions involved in systems approaching thermodynamic equilibrium.