Maxwell's demon objection
Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment that shows how the Second Law can be violated. Take a container divided into two parts containing gas, and imagine that the 'demon' controls a gate between the two only allowing 'hot' molecules to go into one compartment, leading to increased entropy.

Responding to this thought experiment has prompted a revised characterization of the Second Law that explicitly takes account of information - indeed some have argued that the Second Law needs to be re-characterized in terms of information dynamics, rather than energy dynamics (elaborated in this node's subtree).

Immediately related elementsHow this works
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The Arrow of Time  »The Arrow of Time 
The physics of time »The physics of time
The thermodynamic arrow »The thermodynamic arrow
Why do we see an entropy gradient? »Why do we see an entropy gradient?
Asymmetric boundary condition »Asymmetric boundary condition
Boltzmann's statistical imperative »Boltzmann's statistical imperative
Maxwell's demon objection
Need to take account of information »Need to take account of information
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