Maxwell’s Demon
E1000655
Maxwell’s Demon is a famous thought experiment in thermodynamics that imagines an intelligent being seemingly able to violate the second law of thermodynamics by sorting fast and slow gas molecules without expending energy.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Maxwell's demon | 2 |
| Maxwell’s Demon canonical | 2 |
| Maxwell demon | 1 |
| Maxwell's demon thought experiment | 1 |
| Maxwell’s daemon | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T12759422 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Maxwell’s Demon Context triple: [John Nefastis, associatedConcept, Maxwell’s Demon]
-
A.
Nature Abhors a Vacuum
Nature Abhors a Vacuum is an abstract color field painting by American artist Helen Frankenthaler, exemplifying her innovative soak-stain technique and lyrical use of color.
-
B.
Engines of Logic
Engines of Logic is a book by mathematician and computer scientist Martin Davis that explores the historical development of mathematical logic and its foundational role in the creation of modern computers.
-
C.
The Mechanism
The Mechanism is a Brazilian political thriller television series that dramatizes large-scale corruption investigations inspired by real events in Brazil.
-
D.
The Ray of the Microcosm
The Ray of the Microcosm is a philosophical-epic poem by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš that explores metaphysical, religious, and existential themes within the Serbian and Montenegrin literary tradition.
-
E.
The Machine of the World
The Machine of the World is a famous allegorical vision in Luís de Camões’ epic poem *Os Lusíadas*, in which the cosmos and its secrets are revealed to the Portuguese explorers.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Maxwell’s Demon Target entity description: Maxwell’s Demon is a famous thought experiment in thermodynamics that imagines an intelligent being seemingly able to violate the second law of thermodynamics by sorting fast and slow gas molecules without expending energy.
-
A.
Nature Abhors a Vacuum
Nature Abhors a Vacuum is an abstract color field painting by American artist Helen Frankenthaler, exemplifying her innovative soak-stain technique and lyrical use of color.
-
B.
Engines of Logic
Engines of Logic is a book by mathematician and computer scientist Martin Davis that explores the historical development of mathematical logic and its foundational role in the creation of modern computers.
-
C.
The Mechanism
The Mechanism is a Brazilian political thriller television series that dramatizes large-scale corruption investigations inspired by real events in Brazil.
-
D.
The Ray of the Microcosm
The Ray of the Microcosm is a philosophical-epic poem by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš that explores metaphysical, religious, and existential themes within the Serbian and Montenegrin literary tradition.
-
E.
The Machine of the World
The Machine of the World is a famous allegorical vision in Luís de Camões’ epic poem *Os Lusíadas*, in which the cosmos and its secrets are revealed to the Portuguese explorers.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
hypothetical being
ⓘ
thought experiment ⓘ |
| action |
opens and closes a door between compartments
ⓘ
sorts fast and slow molecules ⓘ |
| actsOn | gas molecules ⓘ |
| apparentEffect |
apparent violation of the second law of thermodynamics
ⓘ
creation of temperature difference without work ⓘ decrease of entropy in one compartment ⓘ |
| describedIn | Theory of Heat ⓘ |
| describedInAuthor | James Clerk Maxwell ⓘ |
| discussedIn |
history of physics
ⓘ
philosophy of science ⓘ |
| field |
physics
ⓘ
statistical mechanics ⓘ thermodynamics ⓘ |
| firstPublicationYear | 1871 ⓘ |
| hasAgentType |
intelligent being
ⓘ
microscopic gatekeeper ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeName |
Maxwell demon
ⓘ
linked to:
Maxwell’s Demon
Maxwell’s daemon ⓘ
linked to:
Maxwell’s Demon
|
| inspiredConcept |
information entropy
ⓘ
information thermodynamics ⓘ physical nature of information ⓘ |
| proposalYear | 1867 ⓘ |
| proposedBy | James Clerk Maxwell ⓘ |
| purpose |
to challenge the second law of thermodynamics
ⓘ
to illustrate the statistical nature of entropy ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
Boltzmann entropy
ⓘ
Brownian ratchet ⓘ Landauer’s principle ⓘ
linked to:
Landauer's principle
Shannon information ⓘ Szilard engine ⓘ entropy ⓘ information ⓘ information engine ⓘ microscopic reversibility ⓘ statistical fluctuations ⓘ thermodynamics of computation ⓘ |
| relatedToLaw | second law of thermodynamics ⓘ |
| resolutionIdea |
erasure of information increases entropy
ⓘ
information processing has thermodynamic cost ⓘ |
| resolutionProposedBy |
Charles H. Bennett
ⓘ
Leo Szilard ⓘ Rolf Landauer ⓘ |
| status | does not actually violate the second law when information costs are included ⓘ |
| systemType | gas in two chambers ⓘ |
| usedAs |
pedagogical tool in physics education
ⓘ
philosophical example in foundations of physics ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Maxwell’s Demon Description of subject: Maxwell’s Demon is a famous thought experiment in thermodynamics that imagines an intelligent being seemingly able to violate the second law of thermodynamics by sorting fast and slow gas molecules without expending energy.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Maxwell’s Demon
subject linked to:
Maxwell’s Demon
linked to: Maxwell’s Demon
subject linked to:
Maxwell’s Demon
linked to: Maxwell’s Demon
linked to: Maxwell’s Demon
linked to: Maxwell’s Demon