Books about Prigogine from Amazon.com

Time, the fundamental dimension of our existence, has fascinated artists, philosophers, and scientists of every culture and every century All of us can remember a moment as a child when time became a personal reality, when we realized what a "year" was, or asked ourselves when "now" happened. Common sense says time moves forward, never backward, from cradle to grave. Nevertheless, Einstein said that time is an illusion. Nature's laws, as he and Newton defined them, describe a timeless, deterministic universe within which we can make predictions with complete certainty. In effect, these great physicists contended that time is reversible and thus meaningless..
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Unexpected discoveries in nonequilibrium physics and nonlinear dynamics are changing our understanding of complex phenomena. Recent research has revealed fundamental new properties of matter in far-from-equilibrium conditions, and the prevalence of instability-where small changes in initial conditions may lead to amplified effects..
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Thermodynamics is a core part of most science and engineering curricula. However, most texts that are currently available to students still treat thermodynamics very much as it was presented in the 19th century, generally for historical rather than pedagogical reasons. Modern Thermodynamics takes a different approach, and deals with the relationship between irreversible processes and entropy.The relationship between irreversible processes and entropy is introduced early on, enabling the reader to benefit from seeing the relationship in such processes as heat conduction and chemical reactions. This text presents thermodynamics in a contemporary and exciting manner, with a wide range of applications, and many exercises and examples. Students are also encouraged to use computers through the provision of Mathematica code and Internet / WWW addresses where real data and additional information can be found.

FEATURES

· A truly modern approach to thermodynamics, presenting it as a science of irreversible processes whilst avoiding dividing the subject into equilibrium and non-equilibrium thermodynamics.

· An extensive range of applications drawn from science and engineering, along with many real world examples, and exercises.

· Written by two well-known authors, of whom Professor llya Prigogine was awarded the Nobel Prize for his

research into thermodynamics.

CONTENTS: Part I: Historical Roots: From Heat Engines to Cosmology: Basic Concepts; First Law of Thermodynamics; Second Law of Thermodynamics and the Arrow of Time; Entropy in the Realm of Chemical Reactions; Part ll: Equilibrium Thermodynamics: Extremum Principles and General Thermodynamic Relations; Basic Thermodynamics of Gases, Liquids and Solids; Thermodynamics of Phase Change; Thermodynamics of Solutions; Thermodynamics of Chemical Transformations; Fields and Internal Degrees of Freedom; Thermodynamics of Radiation; Part III: Fluctuations and Stability: The Gibbs' Theory of Stability; Critical Phenomena and Configurational Heat Capacity; Theory of Stability and Fluctuations Based on Entropy Production; Part IV: Linear Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics: Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics: The Foundations; Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics: The Linear Regime; Nonequilibrium Stationary States and their Stability: Linear Regime; Part V: Order Through Fluctuations: Nonlinear Thermodynamics; Dissipative Structures; Postface: Where do we go from here?.
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In this book, after discussing the fundamental problems of current science and other philosophic concepts, beginning with controversies between Heraclitus and Parmenides, Ilya Prigogine launches into a message of great hope: the future has not been determined. Contrary to globalisation and the apparent contemporary mass culture society, individual behaviour is beginning to increasingly become the key factor which governs the evolution of both the world and society as a whole. It is a message that challenges existing widespread views, implicitly or explicitly, through mass communication; moreover the importance of the individual's actions implies a reflection of each person on the responsibilities that each one assumes when taking or acting upon a decision. This responsibility is associated with the freedom of thought as well as a critical analysis of fashions, customs, preconceived ideas, and ideologies, externally imposed: exactly contrary to the ideas of those who wish us to be "perfect consumers" in a world dominated only by monetary wealth.

Challenging this drive towards the elimination of freedom of thought in the individual is now imperative if we are to save man and his planet from catastrophe, which seems to be ever imminent and (unfortunately) irreversible.

This last book of Ilya Prigogine provides a small, disputable, but nonetheless valuable contribution towards that end..
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A century after Henri Bénard discovered cellular convective structures, thermal convection in fluid layers still remains a central subject in nonlinear physics. Within this framework, surface-tension-driven instabilities have increasingly been the subject of attention over the last few years, owing to the even greater variety of pattern and wave-forming phenomena observed in this situation. This book provides readers with a progressive and complete insight into this vast field, describing as it does a number of "first principle" analyses of realistic set-ups, including several physicochemical processes at interfaces. Nonetheless, much emphasis is placed on the generality of the results and methods used, by way of the detailed derivation and analysis of a number of generic nonlinear equations known to hold in many physical systems, even outside the realm of fluid mechanics.

The first introductory chapter describes nonlinear dissipative structures at a general level, with several examples of hydrodynamic instabilities in systems with interfaces. Chapter 2 contains a summary of the derivation of thermo-hydrodynamic equations, including boundary conditions prevailing at interfaces, while the third chapter is devoted to linear stability analyzes and identification of basic instability modes. The following two chapters deal with weakly nonlinear theories, both monotonic and oscillatory. Chapter 6 presents experimental and theoretical results on solitonic and shock-like surface waves, while Chapter 7 explores examples of multiple bifurcations. Finally, Chapter 8 presents recent results on strongly nonlinear surface-tension-driven convection and chaotic interfacial dynamics.
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This volume of photographs and commentary brings together one of the most outstanding groups of treasures of Pre-Columbian art assembled by a private collector. With comments from notable specialists on these civilizations, it offers access to the material in collector Gérard Geiger's private collection, for the first time, to the public at large. Contributors include such distinguished specialists as Peter David Joralemon, Justin Kerr, Ted J. J. Leyenaar, Frances Pratt, Henri Stierlin, and Margaret Young-Sanchez. Highlights of the collection featured in the book include ceremonial tools of Totonac rituals and games; the enthralling Olmec, Teotihuacan, and Monte Alban terracotta and sculptures; high-quality sculpted Maya-jade and Costa Rican engravings; equatorial Valdivian masterpieces; and magnificent Peruvian relics..
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