Sadi Carnot's Ingenious Reasoning of Ideal Heat Engine Reversible Cycles

摘要

Sadi Carnot, at age 28, published in 1824, now famous "Reflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu (Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire)," which is much more important than what it appears at first. It may be among the most important treatises in natural sciences. At that time, when heat was considered as indestructible caloric and the energy conservation law was not known, when heat engines were in initial stage of development with efficiency of less than 5%, the confusion and speculations flourished. Carnot's reasoning of reversible cycles is in many ways equal if not more significant than the Einstein's relativity theory in modern times. It led to discovery of Thermodynamic absolute temperature and entropy, and the far-reaching Second Law of Thermodynamics. No wander that Carnot's work was not noticed at his time, when his ingenious reasoning of ideal heat engine reversible cycles is not fully recognized, and may be truly comprehended by a few, even now. Additional reasoning and conclusions are also presented here.