Kinetic Theory of the Dissipation of Energy

Abstract

IN abstract dynamics an instantaneous reversal of the motion of every moving particle of a system causes the system to move backwards, each particle of it along its old path,-and at the same speed as before when again in the same position—that is to say, in mathematical language, any solution remains a solution when t is changed into —t. In physical dynamics, this simple and perfect reversibility fails on account of forces depending on friction of solids; imperfect fluidity of fluids; imperfect elasticity of solids; inequalities of temperature and consequent conduction of beat produced by stresses in solids and fluids; imperfect magnetic retentiveness; residual electric polarisation of dielectrics; generation of heat by electric currents induced by motion; diffusion of fluids, solution of solids in fluids, and other chemical changes; and absorption of radiant heat and light. Consideration of these agencies in connection with the all-pervading law of the conservation of energy proved for them by Joule, led me twenty-three years ago to the theory of the dissipation of energy, which I communicated first to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1852, in a paper entitled “On a Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation of Mechanical Energy.