From Planck’s statement of the second law of thermodynamics it is generally inferred that it is impossible to construct an engine which produces work at the expense only of heat taken from the air or the ocean. The experiment described in this paper demonstrates that when the air and the ocean are combined as a nonhomogeneous reservoir of uniform temperature, it is possible to construct an engine which produces work by extracting heat from the said reservoir. This does not constitute a violation of the second law of thermodynamics, rather that the ‘‘reservoir’’ in the Planck’s statement must be clearly stated as being in equilibrium.
Topics
Laws of thermodynamics
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© 1984 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1984
American Association of Physics Teachers
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