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Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot , 1796-1832, French physicist, a founder of modern thermodynamics; son of Lazare N. M. Carnot. His famous work on the motive power of heat ( Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu, 1824) is concerned with the relation between heat and mechanical energy. Carnot devised an ideal engine in which a gas is allowed to expand to do work, absorbing heat in the process, and is expanded again without transfer of heat but with a temperature drop. The gas is then compressed, heat being given off, and finally it is returned to its original condition by another compression, accompanied by a rise in temperature. This series of operations, known as Carnot's cycle, shows that even under ideal conditions a heat engine cannot convert into mechanical energy all the heat energy supplied to it; some of the heat energy must be rejected. This is an illustration of the second law of thermodynamics. Carnot's work anticipated that of Joule, Kelvin, and others.

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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press

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