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Maxwell's demon
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Main page Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment created by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell to "show that the 2nd Law of
Contents Thermodynamics has only a statistical certainty." The thought experiment demonstrates Maxwell's point by describing how to
Featured content violate the 2nd Law. In the experiment an imaginary container is divided into two parts by an insulated wall, with a door that can
Current events be opened and closed by what came to be called "Maxwell's Demon". The hypothetical demon is able to let only the "hot"
Random article molecules of gas flow through to a favored side of the chamber, causing that side to appear to spontaneously heat up while the
other side cools down.
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About Wikipedia Contents [hide] To help understand the meaning of Maxwell's
Community portal 1 Origin and history of the idea demon within thermodynamics, see philosophy
Recent changes 2 Original thought experiment of thermal and statistical physics Edit
Contact Wikipedia 3 Criticism and development
Donate to Wikipedia 4 Applications
Help 5 Experimental work
Toolbox 6 Adams and the demon as historical metaphor
7 In popular culture
Print/export 8 See also
Languages 9 Notes
10 References
‫اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ‬
11 External links
Български
Català
Dansk Origin and history of the idea [edit]
Deutsch
Español
When Maxwell introduced the concept, in his letters to colleagues, and in his
Français
book, Theory of Heat, he described it as a "finite being."
Galego The thought experiment first appeared in a letter Maxwell wrote to Peter Guthrie
한국어 Tait on 11 December 1867. It appeared again in a letter to John William Strutt in
Italiano 1870 before it was presented to the public in Maxwell's 1871 book on
‫עברית‬ thermodynamics titled Theory of Heat.[1]
Magyar William Thompson (Lord Kelvin) was the first to use the word "demon" for
Nederlands Maxwell's concept, in the journal Nature, in 1874, and implied that he intended
日本語 the mediating, rather than malevolent, meaning of the word.[2][3]
Norsk (bokmål)
Polski Original thought experiment [edit]
Português
Română The second law of thermodynamics ensures (through statistical probability) that
Русский two bodies of different temperature, when brought into contact with each other
Suomi and isolated from the rest of the Universe, will evolve to a thermodynamic
Svenska equilibrium in which both bodies have approximately the same temperature. The Lord Kelvin, the first to use the word "demon"
second law is also expressed as the assertion that in an isolated system, for Maxwell's concept, implied that he intended the
Türkçe mediating, rather than malevolent, meaning of the
Українська entropy never decreases. word.
Tiếng Việt Maxwell conceived a thought experiment as a way of furthering understanding of
中文 the second law. He described the experiment as follows:[4]

... if we conceive of a being whose faculties are so sharpened that he can follow every molecule in its course, such
a being, whose attributes are as essentially finite as our own, would be able to do what is impossible to us. For we
have seen that molecules in a vessel full of air at uniform temperature are moving with velocities by no means
uniform, though the mean velocity of any great number of them, arbitrarily selected, is almost exactly uniform. Now
let us suppose that such a vessel is divided into two portions, Aand B, by a division in which there is a small hole,
and that a being, who can see the individual molecules, opens and closes this hole, so as to allow only the swifter
molecules to pass from Ato B, and only the slower molecules to pass from B to A. He will thus, without expenditure
of work, raise the temperature of B and lower that of A, in contradiction to the second law of thermodynamics....

In other words, Maxwell imagines one container divided into two parts,
A and B. Both parts are filled with the same gas at equal
temperatures and placed next to each other. Observing the molecules
on both sides, an imaginary demon guards a trapdoor between the
two parts. When a faster-than-average molecule from A flies towards
the trapdoor, the demon opens it, and the molecule will fly from A to
B. The average speed of the molecules in B will have increased while
in A they will have slowed down on average. Since average molecular Schematic figure of Maxwell's demon
speed corresponds to temperature, the temperature decreases in A

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and increases in B, contrary to the second law of thermodynamics.

Criticism and development [edit]

Several physicists have presented calculations that show that the second law of thermodynamics will not actually be violated, if
a more complete analysis is made of the whole system including the demon. The essence of the physical argument is to show
by calculation that any demon must "generate" more entropy segregating the molecules than it could ever eliminate by the
method described. That is, it would take more energy to gauge the speed of the molecules and allow them to selectively pass
through the opening between A and B than the amount of energy saved by the difference of temperature caused by this.
One of the most famous responses to this question was suggested in 1929 by Leó Szilárd and later by Léon Brillouin. Szilárd
pointed out that a real-life Maxwell's demon would need to have some means of measuring molecular speed, and that the act of
acquiring information would require an expenditure of energy. The second law states that the total entropy of an isolated system
must increase. Since the demon and the gas are interacting, we must consider the total entropy of the gas and the demon
combined. The expenditure of energy by the demon will cause an increase in the entropy of the demon, which will be larger than
the lowering of the entropy of the gas. For example, if the demon is checking molecular positions using a flashlight, the flashlight
battery is a low-entropy device, a chemical reaction waiting to happen. As its energy is used up emitting photons (whose entropy
must now be counted as well), the battery's chemical reaction will proceed and its entropy will increase, more than offsetting the
decrease in the entropy of the gas.
In 1960, Rolf Landauer raised an exception to this argument. He realized that some measuring processes need not increase
thermodynamic entropy as long as they were thermodynamically reversible. He suggested these "reversible" measurements
could be used to sort the molecules, violating the Second Law. However, due to the connection between thermodynamic entropy
and information entropy, this also meant that the recorded measurement must not be erased. In other words, to determine what
side of the gate a molecule must be on, the demon must acquire information about the state of the molecule and either discard it
or store it. Discarding it leads to immediate increase in entropy but the demon cannot store it indefinitely: In 1982, Bennett
showed that, however well prepared, eventually the demon will run out of information storage space and must begin to erase the
information it has previously gathered. Erasing information is a thermodynamically irreversible process that increases the entropy
of a system. (Many people run into this problem of running out of storage space on their own computers but fortunately there is a
simple solution – deleting some of the unnecessary data. A Maxwellian demon could do the same thing, deleting earlier data.
But memory erasure is by definition an irreversible process. Once you’ve deleted the data on a piece of memory, resetting all the
bits to 0, it is impossible to reconstruct the original data from this string of 0s. This irreversible process increases entropy by k ln
2 per bit. Bennett realised that one bit of storage was needed for each Szilard cycle. The entropy increase when these bits are
erased offsets the entropy decrease effected by the demon. Thus when we look at the system as a whole entropy has not
decreased, and so the second law is saved.) Although Bennett had reached the same conclusion as Szilard’s 1929 paper, that a
Maxwellian demon could not violate the second law because entropy would be created, he had reached it for different reasons,
and in science the reasons are just as important as results.
However, John Earman and John Norton have argued that Szilárd and Landauer's explanations of Maxwell's Demon begin by
assuming that the second law of thermodynamics cannot be violated, thus rendering their proofs that Maxwell's Demon cannot
violate the Second Law circular.

Applications [edit]

Real-life versions of Maxwellian demons occur, but all such "real demons" have their entropy-lowering effects duly balanced by
increase of entropy elsewhere.
Single-atom traps used by particle physicists allow an experimenter to control the state of individual quanta in a way similar to
Maxwell's demon.
Molecular-sized mechanisms are no longer found only in biology; they are also the subject of the emerging field of
nanotechnology.
A large-scale, commercially-available pneumatic device, called a Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube separates hot and cold air. It sorts
molecules by exploiting the conservation of angular momentum: hotter molecules are spun to the outside of the tube while cooler
molecules spin in a tighter whirl within the tube. Gas from the two different temperature whirls may be vented on opposite ends of
the tube. Although this creates a temperature difference, the energy to do so is supplied by the pressure driving the gas through
the tube.
If hypothetical mirror matter exists, Zurab Silagadze proposes that demons can be envisaged , "which can act like perpetuum
mobiles of the second kind: extract heat energy from only one reservoir, use it to do work and be isolated from the rest of
ordinary world. Yet the Second Law is not violated because the demons pay their entropy cost in the hidden (mirror) sector of the
world by emitting mirror photons."
In 1962 lectures, to illustrate thermodynamics, physicist Richard Feynman analyzed a putative Maxwell's demon device, a tiny
paddlewheel attached to a ratchet, showing why it cannot extract energy from molecular motion of a fluid at equilibrium.[5] This
brownian ratchet is a popular teaching tool.

Experimental work [edit]

In the 1 February 2007 issue of Nature, David Leigh, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, announced the creation of a
nano-device based on this thought experiment. This device is able to drive a chemical system out of equilibrium, but it must be
powered by an external source (light in this case) and therefore does not violate thermodynamics.
Previously, other researchers created a ring-shaped molecule which could be placed on an axle connecting two sites (called A
and B). Particles from either site would bump into the ring and move it from end to end. If a large collection of these devices were
placed in a system, half of the devices had the ring at site A and half at B at any given moment in time.
Leigh made a minor change to the axle so that if a light is shone on the device, the center of the axle will thicken, thus
restricting the motion of the ring. It only keeps the ring from moving, however, if it is at site A. Over time, therefore, the rings will

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be bumped from site B to site A and get stuck there, creating an imbalance in the system. In his experiments, Leigh was able to
take a pot of "billions of these devices" from 50:50 equilibrium to a 70:30 imbalance within a few minutes.[6]

Adams and the demon as historical metaphor [edit]

Historian Henry Brooks Adams in his manuscript The Rule of Phase Applied to History attempted to use Maxwell's demon as a
historical metaphor, though he misunderstood and misapplied the original principle.[7] Adams interpreted history as a process
moving towards "equilibrium", but he saw militaristic nations (he felt Germany pre-eminent in this class) as tending to reverse
this process, a Maxwell's Demon of history. Adams made many attempts to respond to the criticism of his formulation from his
scientific colleagues, but the work remained incomplete at Adams' death in 1918. It was only published posthumously.[8]

In popular culture [edit]

In literature, Maxwell’s Demon appears in Thomas Pynchon's novels, The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow, and in George
Gamow's Mr. Tompkins. Also, it is mentioned in the novel Homo Faber by Swiss author Max Frisch, as well as in one of the
short stories of The Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem: "The Sixth Sally, or How Trurl and Klaupacius Created a Demon of the Second
Kind to Defeat the Pirate Pugg". In Greg Egan's hard science fiction novel Permutation City, Maxwell's Demon is the name of a
program used by the character Maria to keep track of individual "molecules" in the cellular automaton known as the Autoverse.
Finally, Maxwell's Demon appears, and fills his typical role, in the climax of the book Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon
Hardy. Maxwell's Demon was also mentioned in Christopher Stasheff's books from the series A Wizard in Rhyme, wherein he let
Maxwell's Demon (Max for short) help out the main character. In Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's book Monday Begins on
Saturday two of Maxwell's demons work as doormen in the Institute for Magic and Thaumaturgy. Christopher Stasheff's book Her
Majesty's Wizard contains a character referred to as Maxwell's Demon that assist the main character throughout the novel.
In the way of short stories, an homage to Maxwell has been written by Isaac Asimov and Larry Niven.[citation needed] Additionally,
Larry Niven's Warlock in The Magic Goes Away uses such a demon to cool his home in a vignette titled "Unfinished Story #1" as
published in Playgrounds of the Mind (and, earlier, in All the Myriad Ways). The Demon also contributes to the thesis of Ken
Kesey's collection of stories, The Demon Box. In the story "A Feast of Demons" by William Morrison (pseudonym for Joseph
Samachson), a scientist creates Maxwell's Demons to change the temperature of items, the purity of ores, and eventually even
reverse or accelerate the aging process in people—only to have the Demons escape and wreak havoc on civilization. An
implementation of a scientifically plausible nanotech version of Maxwell's demon appears in Paul Di Filippo's short story Any
Major Dude, the use of which gives a country in the story the name "Maxwell's Land" and its inhabitants "demons."
In music and film, Maxwell Demon was the name of Brian Eno's first band, which was the inspiration for the name of a fictional
character in the movie Velvet Goldmine, and Maxwell's Demon is the name of a 1968 film by the American experimental
filmmaker Hollis Frampton. Maxwell's Demon is mentioned in the song 'A Metaphysical Drama', by Vintersorg and also is the
name of a Brooklyn-based indie rock band, as well as that of a London alt-pop band. See also the lyrics to "Isaac's Law" by The
Loud Family.
The computer game Maxwell's Maniac on Microsoft Entertainment Pack is loosely based on Maxwell's Demon.
The theory is also referenced in 2003 video-game Max Payne 2, in the form of an in-game cartoon show the chief villain of which
is named 'Maxwell's Demon,' a creature said to have been created by 'Doctor Entropy' and with the goal of turning the world into
a 'dreaded closed system'. Also, in the 2007 computer game Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer the player encounters a
puzzle in which he controls a trapdoor between two cages containing a mixed population of elemental creatures of fire and ice
(mephits, which roughly resemble the classical image of the "demon"), the point of the puzzle being to separate them despite
their tendency to mingle, in essence putting the player in the role of Maxwell's Demon.
Citing Maxwell's Demon, math intellectuals philosophized about the actions of an escaped criminal in the American television
program Numb3rs. The episode, titled "Arrow of Time", was episode 11 of season 5, and originally aired on January 9, 2009.[9]
A Mac Hall comic depicts the character Matt hallucinating a demon named Maxwell who lives in the air conditioner replacing hot
air molecules with cool ones. He claims to refute the second law of thermodynamics.[10]
James K. Galbraith's "The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too",
describes the market as "a disembodied decision maker - a Maxwell's Demon - that, somehow, and without effort, balances and
reflects the preferences of everyone participating in economic decisions... It can be these things precisely because it is nothing
at all." (Galbraith 19-20) .[11]
UK drum and bass producer John B titled a song on his Visions album "Maxwell's Demon".

See also [edit]

Catalysis
Dispersion
Evaporation
Gibbs paradox
Hall effect
Joule-Thomson effect
Laplace's demon
Laws of thermodynamics
Mass spectrometry
Photoelectric effect
Quantum tunnelling
Thermionic emission

Notes [edit]

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 1. ^ Leff, Harvey S. and Andrew F. Rex. Maxwell's Demon 2: Entropy, Classical and Quantum Information, Computing. CRC Press,
2002, ISBN 0750307595,Google books link page 370 .
2. ^ See Thomson, "Kinetic Theory of the Dissipation of Energy," Nature, 9 April 1874, pp. 441-444, and "The Sorting Demon Of
Maxwell" (1879), Proceedings of the Royal Institution [of Great Britain], vol. ix, p. 113.
3. ^ Weber, Alan S. Nineteenth Century Science: ASelection of Original Texts . Broadview Press 2000 p.300
4. ^ Maxwell (1871), reprinted in Leff & Rex (1990) at p.4
5. ^ Feynman, Richard P. (1963). The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. 1. Massachusetts, USA: Addison-Wesley. Chapter 46.
ISBN 0201021161.
6. ^ Sanderson, Kathrine (2007-01-31). "Ademon of a device" . Nature.com. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
7. ^ Cater (1947), pp640-647, see also the paper by Daub (1970) reprinted in Leff & Rex (1990), pp37-51.
8. ^ Adams (1919), p.267
9. ^ Numb3rs, Arrow of Time, Season 5, Episode 11
10. ^ Mac Hall , Matt Boyd, Ian McConville, v.4.2
11. ^ Galbraith, James K. (2008). The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too.
Free Press. ISBN 141656683X.

References [edit]

Cater, H.D (ed.) (1947). Henry Adams and his Friends. Boston.
Daub, E.E. (1967). "Atomism and Thermodynamics". Isis 58: 293–303. doi:10.1086/350264 .
Leff, H.S. & Rex, A.F. (eds) (1990). Maxwell's Demon: Entropy, Information, Computing. Bristol: Adam-Hilger. ISBN 0-7503-
0057-4.
Adams, H. (1919). The Degradation of the Democractic Dogma. New York: Kessinger. ISBN 1-4179-1598-6.

External links [edit]

Maxwell's Demon ] by Salman Khan

Bennett, C.H. (1987) "Demons, Engines and the Second Law", Scientific American, November, pp108-116
Earman, J. and Norton, J. (1998). "Exorcist XIV: The Wrath of Maxwell's Demon. Part I. From Maxwell to Szilard" (PDF).
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 29: 435–471.
doi:10.1016/S1355-2198(98)00023-9 .
Earman, J. and Norton, J. (1999). "Exorcist XIV: The Wrath of Maxwell's Demon. Part II. From Szilard to Landauer and
Beyond" (PDF). Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern
Physics 30: 1–40. doi:10.1016/S1355-2198(98) .
Feynmann, R.P. et al. (1996). Feynman Lectures on Computation. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-14-028451-6., pp148-150
Jordy, W.H. (1952). Henry Adams: Scientific Historian. New Haven. ISBN 0-685-26683-4.
Leff, H.S. & Rex, A.F. (eds) (2003). Maxwell's Demon 2: Entropy, Classical and Quantum Information, Computing. Institute of
Physics. ISBN 0-7503-0759-5., Contents - an anthology and comprehensive bibliography of academic papers pertaining to
Maxwell's demon and related topics. Chapter 1 (PDF) provides a historical overview of the demon's origin and solutions to
the paradox.
Maroney, O. J. E. (2009) ""Information Processing and Thermodynamic Entropy " The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(Autumn 2009 Edition)
Maxwell, J.C. (1871). Theory of Heat ., reprinted (2001) New York: Dover, ISBN 0-486-41735-2
Splasho (2008) - Historical development of Maxwell's demon
Norton, J. (2005). "Eaters of the lotus: Landauer's principle and the return of Maxwell's demon" (PDF). Studies in History
and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 36: 375–411.
doi:10.1016/j.shpsb.2004.12.002 .
Reaney, Patricia. "Scientists build nanomachine" , Reuters, February 1, 2007
Rubi, J Miguel, "Does Nature Break the Second Law of Thermodynamics? "; Scientific American, October 2008 :
Weiss, Peter. "Breaking the Law - Can quantum mechanics + thermodynamics = perpetual motion?" , Science News,
October 7, 2000

Categories: Philosophy of thermal and statistical physics | Fundamental physics concepts | Nanotechnology | James Clerk
Maxwell | Fictional demons | Thought experiments in physics

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