GRUPO B

Essay of the article “Statistical mechanics and thermodynamics: A Maxwellian view”

The central theme of this article, on which we will carry out the essay, is to introduce key
concepts such as statistical mechanics and thermodynamics focused on the point of view of
James Clerk Maxwell and his conception of the physical principle of the second law of
thermodynamics, already that for his was “No matter of physical principle prevents the
operations of a Maxwell demon; it is only our current, but perhaps temporary, inability to
manipulate individual molecules that prevents us from doing what the devil could do
”(Myrvold, 2011). And this point of view is very characteristic, since it defines the second
law of thermodynamics as a concept that cannot be strictly correct, but has great limitations
in its definition and does not satisfy its foundations in a correct way and that Maxwell states
that the difference between work and heat is not entirely true, but varies according to the
environment in which it is found. For this essay, we are going to make various notes on this
position and we are going to contrast them with our particular knowledge about the second
law of thermodynamics, evidencing the veracity of said opinion and forming an opinion
and a clear position on Maxwell's opinion.
The great scientists of modern science hold two possible versions of the second law of
thermodynamics, but the one that has been best established among these scientific groups is
that although fluctuations at some moments result in the transfer of heat from a colder body
to a warmer body, these fluctuations cannot predict, that is, a process that constantly
transfers heat cannot exist for sure without being able to generate an entropy compensation
in other places of said system, which I think totally valid since for sure we cannot define a
specific process to carry out said operation, and although it could be totally true, it would
not be taking into account everything that would happen within the system, therefore, we
know this definition as the version probabilistic of the second law of thermodynamics.
Maxwell follows this with an exposition of what he now calls Maxwell's demon, and this
concept is quite fundamental to understand the article since it tells us about a demon, or as
he defines it, an imaginary creature that is capable of differentiating between gas molecules
at different temperatures in two vessels divided in A and B. This demon can allow the
entry, exit of molecules immediately, and make them concentrate on the left side and the
slower ones on the right half. In addition, therefore, the order of the system would increase,
violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
This is quite valid, since on a large scale we can see that the second law of thermodynamics
is a very valid law, very applicable and with specific definitions on heat transfers, but when
we analyze the molecules and their behavior, we can notice that this theory is totally
discarded and that the behavior in particles is very different. “As the number of molecules
in the group increases, the deviations from the mean of the group become smaller and less
frequent; and when the number increases until the group includes a sensitive part of the
body, the probability of a measurable variation from the mean occurring in a finite number
of years becomes so small that it can be considered practically an impossibility.” [ CITATION
Way11 \l 2058 ].
But, not everything that Maxwell affirms is totally valid from his own point of view, since
“For Maxwell, even the probabilistic version has a limited scope, it is only fulfilled in
circumstances in which there is no manipulation of molecules individually or in numbers
small. "(Myrvold, 2011). This means that not in all situations, this statement can become
valid, it requires many more conditions, including conditions that not even the human being
can perceive or take into account.
Followed by this, we are told about work, heat and entropy as concepts related to the
media, since the energy that a system possesses can be transferred as heat, or a system that
can carry out work on another system found in said medium. The second law of
thermodynamics naturally and according to the formulation made to this concept, a
distinction or differentiation between these two modes of energy transfer, since they are
two very different types of energy and we cannot get to define them as an equal concept. In
this part of the reading, they emphasize a fundamental and very assertive contribution of
the scientist Clausius and his formulation that says that heat cannot be transferred Heat
cannot pass from a colder body to a warmer one without the occurrence of some other
change related to him at the same time. To see that this depends on a distinction between
heat and work, note that it becomes false if we do not specify that energy be transferred as
heat. This affirmation is very valid since bodies undergo great transformations and forceful
changes in their molecules, which makes Kelvin's utopian affirmation of the second law
very evident.
Maxwell affirms that, if the interdiffusion of two gases increases the entropy, not only is
there only a physical change in said gas, but there is also an intervention of the agent's
abilities that allows this change. This agent does not see a way to separate two gases that do
not consider their interdiffusion as a lost opportunity to work. Any distinction between
gases that is irrelevant to their ability to do work is irrelevant to their thermodynamic state,
so we cannot specifically and punctually consider that there is a latent entropy within said
process. Therefore, we can say that when we take into account an initial and final state in a
concrete process, a violation of the second law of thermodynamics occurs.

Now, we cannot leave aside the concept of statistical mechanics, since it will give us great
bases to totally refute the second law. This concept tries to rescue thermodynamics and
seeks to give a meaning to the second law of thermodynamics, since, if the scope of what
you want to rescue is limited in certain circumstances, that is, in those when an immense
amount of molecules are being dealt with in bulk, then we can hope to invoke some version
of the law of large numbers.
For this reason, Maxwell affirms that said object of our study would be a system with a
large number of degrees of freedom, which will differentiate the types of interaction they
have from the environment and the system. In a probabilistic distribution, in which these
states of the molecules are clearly independent, they will be minimally dispersed, so they
will have a precise knowledge of their values and it will be incompatible with the
knowledge of the total state.
“Energy imparted to (or taken from) the system via changes of the controllable external
parameters is to be counted as work; all other energy transfer between the system and the
environment, as heat. Assume that there is a reliable relation between the values of the
known variables and the controllable parameters (equation of state). On the Maxwellian
view, the second law should say that, given such a distinction between manipulable and
uncontrollable parameters, and between the known parameters, used to define the
thermodynamic state, the unknown, there can be no process that predictably and reliably
has the effect of converting heat energy entirely into work with no net change in the
thermodynamic states of the systems involved.” (Myrvold, 2011).
It is clear that for Maxwell the second law of thermodynamics is more statistical than
mathematical concretely, and this is due to the fact that it is not totally concrete with its
definitions, and that it does not apply to all the cases or all the means faced by said system
and this is fully demonstrated with his imaginary demon that describes the law as a fully
enforced law under the probability of things. Maxwell conceived of his demon as being at
his service that recognizes that the Second Law of Thermodynamics can only be seen from
one with a very high probability, but despite that, it is not entirely a law, since there is
always room for a small probability of reduction in entropy. As Maxwell points out,
measurable thermodynamic quantities are averages over many molecular quantities. Thus,
the probabilistic version can lead to large errors in the original version of the second law
that will make said law improbable when speaking of molecules.

“Most contemporary physicists believe in something stronger than Maxwell's law. We

should ask ourselves if we have a good reason to believe in the stronger version; and this is
the question of whether we have reason to believe that there could be no device to play the
role of Maxwell's demon, predictably and reliably converting what we (currently) regard as
heat entirely into useful work. An answer that the second law is a well-confirmed inductive
generalization would not be convincing. From Maxwell's point of view, the second law is
valid in situations where there is no manipulation of individual molecules, and these are the
circumstances of the observations that form our basis for induction.” (Myrvold, 2011).

In conclusion, Maxwell's theory of the demon is very successful, and it is clearly widely
accepted by the entire scientific community since it describes and perfectly analyzes the
second law of thermodynamics, not as a system, but as the union of different molecules.
Which, when they come together totally, is when we can give evidence of all the
phenomena that happen at the macro level. However, at the microscopic level, this works
very different, since the molecules behave in a very different way to the same union of
several molecules, therefore, the second law of thermodynamics is much denied and totally
discarded in that case and under different conditions to see what the law it states. It is
necessary to take into account all the different systems that exist to take into account this
law as something absolute, but Maxwell's opinion and the creation of his demon manage to
reveal several gaps that the law cannot define. On the other hand, probability manages to
address the second law of thermodynamics very well since it clearly depends on it and not
on mathematics itself, since not in all cases the law of thermodynamics can be fulfilled,
there are several exceptions.

Bibliography
Myrvold, W. C. (2011). Statistical mechanics and thermodynamics: A Maxwellian view.
Ontario: Department of Philosophy, The University of Western.