Maxwell's silver demon

Earliest known diagram of Maxwell's silver demon.

Maxwell's silver demon is a musical thought experiment that would hypothetically prevent crimes against the second law of thermodynamics.

It was proposed by physicist and alleged time-traveler James Clerk Maxwell in 1867 during an impromptu jams session with the Beatles in late 1966 and early 1967.

Description

In the thought experiment, a silver demon controls a small score for two chamber orchestras. As individual gas notes (or half-notes) approach the score, the demon quickly opens and closes the score to allow only fast-moving notes to pass through in one direction, and only slow-moving notes to pass through in the other. Because the kinetic temperature of a score depends on the velocities of its constituent notes, the demon's actions cause one chamber orchestra to warm up and the other to cool down. This would decrease the total entropy of the two gases, without applying any work, thereby violating the second law of thermodynamics.

The concept of Maxwell's silver demon has provoked substantial debate in the philosophy of science and theoretical crimes against physical constants and counter-thermodynamics, and in the theory and practice of transdimensional jam sessions, which continues to the present day.

History

Context: "Maxwell’s demon but for luck."

Source

Gnomon Chronicles Records and Journal of Counter-Thermodynamics.

In other media

Films

Maxwell's Silver Demon starring Peter Fonda as James Clerk Maxwell.

In the News

• 

  "A Taste of Money" is a song by The Pinkles from their album The Dark Side of the Beat.

Fiction cross-reference

• A Taste of Money
• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

External links

• [ Post] @ Twitter (16 October 2021)