Maxwell's demon

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Maxwell's demon a hypothetical being imagined as controlling a hole in a partition dividing a gas-filled container into two parts, and allowing only fast-moving molecules to pass in one direction, and slow-moving molecules in the other. This would result in one side of the container becoming warmer and the other colder, in violation of the second law of thermodynamics. It is named after the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831–79).

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