Maxwell's demon

English

Etymology

Named after physicist James Clerk Maxwell and demon, and probably from Greek daemon, a mythological being intermediate between gods and men.

Noun

Maxwell’s demon (plural Maxwell's demons)

  1. A hypothetical creature created for a thought experiment. Maxwell’s demon, if it existed, would act as a sort of gate guard by sorting between higher-energy molecules and lower-energy molecules within an enclosed space. Because such a sorting process would tend to decrease entropy, it would violate the second law of thermodynamics.

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