Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire: And Other Papers on the Second Law of Thermodynamics (Dover Books on Physics)

Entropy is one of those concepts in physics that continuously challenges me. The Carnot Cycle is likely where the idea was born. In his book Carnot presents, in a format for us common folk, his reasoning behind his insights into thermodynamic efficiency. Carnot did not understand the nature of heat in the terms we do today, nor did he define the second law of thermodynamics, so I did not look to this book to understand those ideas. Rather I sought to know about Carnot's thoughts on the matter and about this man that started it all. In today's world I think this book is mostly of historical interest, but for anyone interested in the history of physics this book is a great read.

Carnot's forgotten masterpiece, Clapeyron's memoir that enabled Kelvin and Clausius to rediscover it, and Clausius' milestone work that put thermodynamics on a solid scientific foundation. For those studying classical thermodynamics or the history of science, this is an indispensible book. Carnot's posthumous notes (a fascinating insight into the man's genius) and Eric Mendoza's finely written introduction add further to its timeless appeal.

This book in early 19th century led to the second law of thermodynamics. This 'law' has not yet been recognized by our EPA. My high school French is not up to the original so I get this translation for reference.

nice little book but don't let them convince you it is in layman's terms. Still a tough topic to get through.

One of the best source of scientific history that i knowed.

Carnot was one of the original, original thinkers. His work gave birth to modern day thermodynamics. Sadi Carnot is one of the giants on whose shoulders we stand.

A classic!

This book contains three classic papers about the founding of thermodynamics.Sadi Carnot, a French physicist who founded the science of thermodynamics, published his classic work, "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat," in 1824. Carnot reviewed the industrial, political and economic impact and importance of the steam engine invented by James Watt. In this paper, Carnot evaluated the efficiency of steam engines and sought a theory based on known principles that could be applied to all engines. Carnot concluded that "no engine operating between two heat reservoirs can be more efficient than a Carnot engine operating between the same reservoirs", a statement now known as Carnot's theorem.Emile Cladeyron, "Memoir on the Motive Power of Heat," 1834, expanded and developed the concepts introduced by Sadi Carnot.Rudolf Clausius, a German theoretical physicist, "On the Motive Power of Heat and one the laws which can be deduced from it for the theory of heat," 1850, formalized the second law of thermodynamics and introduced the concept the entropy, based partially on the work of Sadi Carnot and Caldeyron.

Best book to start as foundation for thermodynamics. Later on you can read theory of heat by Claussius(original founder of entropy) and Gibbs book on Statistical mechanics to get a good grip on classical statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. Later on you can study quantum statistics from Landau or Pathria

Excellent,Well, it is the only book available. But the print is very readable, and accurate the translation.Besides the classical paper by Carnot, there are another two important papers, One by Clausius and the other by Clayperon.

熱力学を学ぶにあたり、避けて通れない三つの論文があります。原動機の効率は損失のない熱機関から構成された原動機の効率を超えることがないことを示したカルノーの「火の動力」（1824年）、pV線図を使うことで判り易くカルノー理論を紹介したクラペロンのメモ（1834年）とクラウジウスによる熱力学第二法則の提唱に関わる論文（1850年）です。原著はフランス語やドイツ語ですが、この本には英訳が掲載されています。平易な英語ですが内容は難解です。MendozaによるIntroductionに詳細に述べられてるように当時はfire、heat、caloriqueの使い分けが曖昧だからです。このことを念頭において読み直すと、caloriqueが1865年以降のentoropyの意味で使われているところも見つかります。この書を読むと熱力学にとってもっとも重要な概念entoropyが導入される必然性が判ります。このような素晴らしい書籍が日本では出版されないのは何故でしょう。科学は、科学技術の仲間であって、まだ科学文化として定着していないためでしょうか。