出典:Wiktionary
出典:『Wiktionary』 (2025/07/23 23:06 UTC 版)
Named after physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) and demon, and probably from Greek daemon, a mythological being intermediate between gods and men.
Maxwell's demon (plural Maxwell's demons)
出典:Wikipedia
出典:『Wikipedia』 (2011/07/29 15:40 UTC 版)
In the philosophy of thermal and statistical physics, Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment created by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell to "show that the Second Law of Thermodynamics has only a statistical certainty." It demonstrates Maxwell's point by hypothetically describing how to violate the Second Law: A container is divided into two parts by an insulated wall, with a door that can be opened and closed by what came to be called "Maxwell's demon"; the demon opens the door to allow only the "hot" molecules of gas to flow through to a favored side of the chamber, causing that side to gradually heat up while the other side cools down.