by Arieh Ben-Naim (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)

Table of Contents (63k)
Preface (78k)
Chapter 1: Introduction, and a Short History of the Second Law of Thermodynamics (153k)

In this unique book, Arieh Ben-Naim invites the reader to experience the joy of appreciating something which has eluded understanding for many years — entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

The book has a two-pronged message: first, that the Second Law is not “infinitely incomprehensible” as commonly stated in textbooks of thermodynamics but can, in fact, be comprehended through sheer common sense; and second, that entropy is not a mysterious quantity that has “resisted understanding” but a simple, familiar and easily comprehensible concept.

Written in an accessible style, the book guides the reader through an abundance of dice games and examples from everyday life. The author paves the way for readers to discover for themselves what entropy is, how it changes, and most importantly, why it always changes in one direction in a spontaneous process.

• Introduction, and a Short History of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
• A Brief Introduction to Probability Theory, Information Theory, and All the Rest
• First Let Us Play with Real Dice
• Let's Play with Simplified Dice and Have a Preliminary Grasp of the Second Law
• Experience the Second Law with All Your Five Senses
• Finally, Grasp It with Your Common Sense
• Translating from the Dice-World to the Real World
• Reflections on the Status of the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a Law of Physics