Energy and Entropy | G. A. Alekseev

With the discovery, between 1845 and 1847, of the principle of conservation of energy, the importance of energy for human life and progress was recognized, and scientists gave energy the romantic name of `The Queen of the Worldâ. Some twenty years later scientists discovered entropy, a measure of the dissipation of energy. This book outlines the history of the formulation of these two notions. Ideas and concepts that were crystallizing in the human mind for thousands of years as the result of observation, practical experience, and developments in technology are described, together with philosophers, scientists, engineers, and inventors who contributed to their formulation.

Contents
Introduction
THE QUEEN OF THE WORLD AND HER SHADOW 7

THE INVISIBLE QUEEN 15
The Man of Reason Showed in the Mirror of the Universe 15
From the Forces of Gods to the Forces of Souls in Every Object 20
Energy and 2000 Years of Walking About 28
“Give Me a Place to Stand and I Will Move the World!” 36
The Birth of the ‘Motive Power of Fire’ 41
In the Gloom of Religious and Political Cataclysms 44
Renaissance. Gravitational, Magnetic, and Electric Forces 50
Celestial and Terrestrial Forces 60
“Let Us Laugh, My Kepler, at the Stupidity of Men!” 64

TRIUMVIRATE 72

Falsely Directed Efforts Multiply Errors 72
“No Forces Are Lost for Any Type of Motion of Bodies” 82
Animate and Inanimate, Active and Passive Forces 87
Innate and Impressed Forces 90
The Advent of the ‘Motive Power of Fire’ 98
Forces of ‘Imponderable’ Matter 106
Destruam et aedificabo 119
The Principle of Conservation and Conversion of ‘Forces’ (Energy) 125

THE MULTIFACETED QUEEN 136

How Many Faces Does Her Majesty Have? 136
The Distribution of Roles 145
The Interconversion of Faces 148
A ‘Shagreen Leather’ for Humanity 150
From a Splinter to a reactor and Further 154
Concentration, Transformation Accumulation 161
“Equations of the Motion of Energy in Bodies” 163

THE QUEEN’S FORMIDABLE SHADOW 167

Shadows Start Growing at Noon 167
Entropy, Probability, and the Universe 174
Is the Demon an Outlaw? 180
How Much Entropy Is Contained in a Scientific Paper? 183
Love, Cybernetics, and Entropy 185
Give Me a Plate of Negentropy! 187
The Queen of the World and Her Shadow in Time and Space 190
Entropy and … the Construction Industry 193

Conclusion. IS HUMANITY IN A STATE OF SIEGE. 196