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The phenomenon of irreversibility results from the fact that if a thermodynamic system, which is any system of sufficient complexity, of interacting molecules is brought from one thermodynamic state to another, the configuration or arrangement of the atoms and molecules in the system will change in a way that is not easily predictable.
Landauer's principle is a physical principle pertaining to a lower theoretical limit of energy consumption of computation.It holds that an irreversible change in information stored in a computer, such as merging two computational paths, dissipates a minimum amount of heat to its surroundings. [1]
An irreversible process degrades the performance of a thermodynamic system, designed to do work or produce cooling, and results in entropy production. The entropy generation during a reversible process is zero. Thus entropy production is a measure of the irreversibility and may be used to compare engineering processes and machines.
In physics, Loschmidt's paradox (named for J.J. Loschmidt), also known as the reversibility paradox, irreversibility paradox, or Umkehreinwand (from German 'reversal objection'), [1] is the objection that it should not be possible to deduce an irreversible process from time-symmetric dynamics.
In thermodynamics and thermal physics, the Gouy-Stodola theorem is an important theorem for the quantification of irreversibilities in an open system, and aids in the exergy analysis of thermodynamic processes.
In the field of thermodynamics the Bejan number is the ratio of heat transfer irreversibility to total irreversibility due to heat transfer and fluid friction: [1] [2] = ˙, ′ ˙, ′ + ˙, ′
In thermodynamics, a reversible process is a process, involving a system and its surroundings, whose direction can be reversed by infinitesimal changes in some properties of the surroundings, such as pressure or temperature. [1] [2] [3]
As this quantity H was meant to represent the entropy of thermodynamics, the H-theorem was an early demonstration of the power of statistical mechanics as it claimed to derive the second law of thermodynamics—a statement about fundamentally irreversible processes—from reversible microscopic mechanics.