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William John Macquorn Rankine FRSE FRS (/ ˈ r æ ŋ k ɪ n /; 5 July 1820 – 24 December 1872) was a Scottish mathematician and physicist. He was a founding contributor, with Rudolf Clausius and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), to the science of thermodynamics , particularly focusing on its First Law.
The heat death paradox, also known as thermodynamic paradox, Clausius' paradox, and Kelvin's paradox, [1] is a reductio ad absurdum argument that uses thermodynamics to show the impossibility of an infinitely old universe.
Rankine's theory (maximum-normal stress theory), developed in 1857 by William John Macquorn Rankine, [1] is a stress field solution that predicts active and passive earth pressure. It assumes that the soil is cohesionless, the wall is frictionless, the soil-wall interface is vertical, the failure surface on which the soil moves is planar , and ...
The Rankine cycle is named after William John Macquorn Rankine, a Scottish polymath professor at Glasgow University. Heat energy is supplied to the system via a boiler where the working fluid (typically water) is converted to a high-pressure gaseous state (steam) in order to turn a turbine. After passing over the turbine the fluid is allowed to ...
The Rankine scale is used in engineering systems where heat computations are done using degrees Fahrenheit. [3] The symbol for degrees Rankine is °R [2] (or °Ra if necessary to distinguish it from the Rømer and Réaumur scales). By analogy with the SI unit kelvin, some authors term the unit Rankine, omitting the degree symbol. [4] [5]
The Rankine vortex is a simple mathematical model of a vortex in a viscous fluid. It is named after its discoverer, William John Macquorn Rankine . The vortices observed in nature are usually modelled with an irrotational (potential or free) vortex.
The thermal time hypothesis is a possible solution to the problem of time in classical and quantum theory as has been put forward by Carlo Rovelli and Alain Connes. Physical time flow is modeled as a fundamental property of the theory, a macroscopic feature of thermodynamical origin. [31] [32]
Also involved editorially were William John Macquorn Rankine, Francis Bowen, John Eadie, and John Pringle Nichol. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] A list of contributors appeared in the first volume, [ 9 ] and a further list in volume II.