Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:48:09.385Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Amplifying Systems and Available Energy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Neil W. O'Rourke
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper considers combinations of frictionless mechanical amplifiers arranged in a cycle so that the amplified signal passes around through an endless chain of such systems the output of the last system being fed into the first. It appears that while each amplifier may be reversible in the absence of friction, the effect of the combination is such that the signal would be unable to pass around the cycle indefinitely, using the same energy over and over again. It is felt that the assumptions upon which this cycle is based are related to some of the conditions met with in consideration of open thermodynamic systems such as heat engines and living organisms when in finite environments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , January 1955 , pp. 21 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1955

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

(1) Elsasser, W. M., “Quantum Mechanics, Amplifying Processes, and Living Matter”, Philosophy of Science, XVIII, 1951, p. 300.10.1086/287166CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2) Shannon, Claude, and Weaver, Warren, The Mathematical Theory of Communication, The University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1949.Google Scholar
(3) Wiener, Norbert, Cybernetics, John Wiley, New York, 1948.Google ScholarPubMed