Maxwell meets the gases

Several physicists have presented calculations that show that the second law of thermodynamics will not actually be violated, if a more complete analysis is made of the whole system including the demon… For example, if the demon is checking molecular positions using a flashlight, the flashlight battery is a low-entropy device, a chemical reaction waiting to happen.

The demon here is not Ravana of the ten handsome heads, he who earned the right to dine on saints by meditating in the flame of pure thought, by throwing one fine head each thousand years into the fire of his mind. Maxwell is a mini-demon. He’s a short-short not an epic, a humble thought experiment, a doorman devil, in-or decreasing entropy by monitoring speed of molecules--depending on whether such activity qualifies as work or relaxation; also on whether the demon makes use of labor-saving implements like renewable batteries powered perhaps by long mindful breaths.

The second law of thermodynamics forbids (through statistical improbability) that two bodies of equal temperature, when brought into contact with each other and isolated from the rest of the Universe, will evolve to a stable state in which one of the two has a significantly higher temperature than the other.

Maxwell’s little spirit knows the letter of the law; is a stubborn segregationist, all things being equal, separate, and suspended in the universe in constant animation. The devil is a follower of custom over creed, never heated, never working, a demonic automated response system that knows exactly where each moving thing belongs, down the level of molecular sighs.

Since the demon and the gas are interacting, we must consider the total entropy of the gas and the demon combined.

What was that about a chemical reaction waiting to happen? Never fall in love with your love or your work! The demon falls in love with swirling gases and the devil looks adoringly at form as beauty saunters slowly through the passage in between the isolated chambers A and B beneath the gaze of a being whose powers are as finite as our own.