Abstract
This paper investigates what the source of time asymmetry is in thermodynamics, and comments on the question whether a time-symmetric formulation of the Second Law is possible.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 525-538 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B - Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2001 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We are grateful to Yemima Ben-Menahem and Itamar Pitowsky for their kind invitation to and hospitality during the May 2000 International Workshop in Jerusalem. We also thank Julian Barbour for providing the 1897a Boltzmann reference, and Jeremy Butterfield for detailed suggestions towards improving presentation. HRB thanks Michael Lockwood for useful discussions, and gratefully acknowledges the support of the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust.
Keywords
- Entropy
- Second law
- Statistical mechanics
- Thermodynamics