science · 24 August 1832 · 192 years ago
death
Died 24 Aug 1832 at age 36 (born 1 Jun 1796).
Nicolas-Lèonard-Sadi Carnot was a French engineer and physicist became a captain of engineers in the army, and spent much of his life investigating the design of steam engines. His book Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat (1824) contained a theorem which says that a maximum efficiency of heat engine can be obtained by a reversible engine, and that efficiency depends only on the temperatures of the hot and the cool sources of the engine. This theorem played an essential role for the subsequent development of thermodynamics. It was written to promote the construction of steam engines and other heat engines in France, whose industrial development was lagging behind England's.
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