maxwell's demon

English - English

Definition of maxwell's demon in English English dictionary

A hypothetical creature created for a thought experiment. Maxwell’s demon, if it existed, would act as a sort of gate guard by sorting between higher-energy molecules and lower-energy molecules within an enclosed space. Because such a sorting process would tend to decrease entropy, it would violate the second law of thermodynamics

an imaginary creature that controls a small hole in a partition that divides a chamber filled with gas into two parts and allows fast molecules to move in one direction and slow molecules to move in the other direction through the hole; this would resultin one part of the container becoming warmer and the other cooler, thus decreasing entropy and violating the second law of thermodynamics

Hyphenation

maxwell's de·mon

Turkish pronunciation

mäkswelz dimın

Pronunciation

/ˈmakˌswelz ˈdēmən/ /ˈmækˌswɛlz ˈdiːmən/

Etymology

() Named after physicist and demon, and probably from Greek daemon, a mythological being intermediate between gods and men.