Material Detail

Dozens of balls are bouncing around in two boxes, and the Poor Devil can open the gate between the boxes. The aim of this game is to help the Poor Devil separate the fast balls from the slow ones. With each new level the number of balls increases, and so does the difficulty of the game. The game is based on a famous «thought experiment» proposed by 19th-century Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell: If we conceive of a being whose faculties are so sharpened that he can follow every molecule in its course, such a being [..] would be able to do what is impossible to us. Maxwell’s Demon, as it became known, would be able to defeat the Second Law of Thermodynamics and produce a reduction in entropy, a physical quantity that normally always increases. This is exactly the Poor Devil’s task: each level of the game starts with maximum entropy, and is only completed when (with some help from the player!) entropy is minimized.

This will delete the comment from the database. This operation is not reversible. Are you sure you want to do it?

Thank you for reporting a broken "Go to Material" link in MERLOT to help us maintain a collection of valuable learning materials.

If you feel this material is inappropriate for the MERLOT Collection, please click SEND REPORT, and the MERLOT Team will investigate. Thank you!

You are being taken to the material on another site. This will open a new window.

Do not show me this again