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JCE WebWare: Web-Based Learning Aids
William F. Coleman Wellesley College Wellesley, MA 02481
Peer-Reviewed JCE WebWare A Pedagogical Simulation of Maxwell’s Demon can help students better understand the statistical basis of thermodynamics. The program simulates two gas chambers with an opening between them. Students set up parameters for how the demon permits or denies passage of particles through the opening, thus decreasing the total entropy of the system. While the program is designed primarily to teach the relation between entropy and information, it can also be used to
www.JCE.DivCHED.org
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Edward W. Fedosky University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI 53715
help students better understand other important thermodynamic concepts such as thermal equilibrium, relaxation time, diffusion, reversible and irreversible processes, and distribution of particle velocities. You can find A Pedagogical Simulation of Maxwell’s Demon and the entire peer-reviewed collection of JCE WebWare at http://www.JCE.DivCHED.org/JCEDLib/WebWare/collection/reviewed/.
Vol. 81 No. 11 November 2004
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Journal of Chemical Education
1679
