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News and views. Thermodynamics: cool sounds

News and views. Thermodynamics: cool sounds
News and views. Thermodynamics: cool sounds
The turbines and crankshafts of the mechanical engineers have proved to be very useful, as everyone knows. But they produce noise, and unfortunately need oiling every now and again. How much better if engines could be constructed whose moving parts have been eliminated! Solar cells, for the production of electricity, are one way to go: the result is an elegant 'engine' in which only the electrons are the moving parts. In a paper1 in Physical Review Letters, Reid, Ward and Swift describe another, but less familiar, transition to engines without moving parts. Moreover, by using a single gas both as the working part of the engine and as a heat-exchange medium, an old theoretical efficiency limit can be transgressed.
0028-0836
623-624
Landsberg, Peter T.
cd811241-233f-4791-baa6-3c1abfc4cf8b
Landsberg, Peter T.
cd811241-233f-4791-baa6-3c1abfc4cf8b

Landsberg, Peter T. (1998) News and views. Thermodynamics: cool sounds. Nature, 394 (6694), 623-624. (doi:10.1038/29184).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The turbines and crankshafts of the mechanical engineers have proved to be very useful, as everyone knows. But they produce noise, and unfortunately need oiling every now and again. How much better if engines could be constructed whose moving parts have been eliminated! Solar cells, for the production of electricity, are one way to go: the result is an elegant 'engine' in which only the electrons are the moving parts. In a paper1 in Physical Review Letters, Reid, Ward and Swift describe another, but less familiar, transition to engines without moving parts. Moreover, by using a single gas both as the working part of the engine and as a heat-exchange medium, an old theoretical efficiency limit can be transgressed.

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Published date: 1998

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 29478
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/29478
ISSN: 0028-0836
PURE UUID: 744ce779-ca22-484e-8bf2-92ebbea5cbe3

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Date deposited: 02 May 2007
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 07:32

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Author: Peter T. Landsberg

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