A paradox involving the second law of thermodynamics

Abstract

A simple paradox is posed that appears to challenge the second law of thermodynamics in a blackbody plasma environment. Laboratory experiments approximating salient aspects of this system fail to resolve the paradox.

Has the Second Law of Thermodynamics Really Been Violated?

“…Sheehan (3) provided a survey of experiments that would lead to violations of the second law. The first of these experiments, which has been really performed (3,4,5,6,7), is practically identical to that performed by Yelin; Sheehan does not cite Yelin probably due to the limited diffusion of Yelin's work in English. The diagram of the apparatus shown in Fig.…”

Speed-Dependent Weighting of the Maxwellian Distribution in Rarefied Gases: A Second-Law Paradox?

“…Thus, (a) immediately above certainly; and, if h/m |v| mw = h(π/2mkT ) 1/2 < typical Knudsen-gas-molecule deBroglie wavelength ≈ h/m |v K | L and (even at maximum allowable Knudsengas density) L, 35 (b) immediately above more strongly, implies cutoffs of integration for (2) at finite ±|v K | cutoff of nonzero, albeit (typically) very small magnitude, i.e., 0 < v K,ground,rms ≡ v 2 K,ground constant N in (2), as per…”

<title>Quantum power source: putting in order of a Brownian motion without Maxwell's demon</title>

“…But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but collapse in deepest humiliation". Nevertheless enough many papers with challenge the absolute status of the second law were published in the last years [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56]. More detailed Bibliography can be found at the web-site http://www.sandiego.edu/secondlaw2002/#Bibliography of First International Conference on Quantum Limits to the Second Law which was held July [29][30][31]2002 in University of San Diego and at the web-site http://www.ipmt-hpm.ac.ru/SecondLaw/.…”