Biography:Gordon Van Wylen
Gordon John Van Wylen (born February 6, 1920)[1] is an American physicist and author of textbooks on thermodynamics. He was chair of the physics department at the University of Michigan from 1969 to 1972 and President of Hope College in Holland, Michigan, from 1972 to 1987. He was born in Grant, Michigan.
"Creator" comment
He received recognition for mentioning "a Creator" in his summation of the second law of thermodynamics. “A final point to be made is that the second law of thermodynamics and the principle of increase in entropy have great philosophical implications. The question that arises is how did the universe get into the state of reduced entropy in the first place, since all natural processes known to us tend to increase entropy? ... The author has found that the second law tends to increase his conviction that there is a Creator who has the answer for the future destiny of man and the universe.”[2]
Bibliography
- Fundamentals of Classical Thermodynamics. By Gordon J. Van Wylen and Richard Edwin Sonntag. New York: Wiley, 1973. [note 1][3]
- Van Wylen, Gordon John (1 January 1959). Thermodynamics. Wiley. https://books.google.com/books?id=4QlRAAAAMAAJ.[note 2]
Notes
References
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