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    An Entropy Proof of The Arithmetic Mean Geometric Mean Inequality

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    kzeipi
    The document summarizes an entropy proof of the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality. It describes bodies with masses m1, m2, etc. coming into thermal contact and reaching a common temperature T. Using entropy equations, it shows the total entropy of the system must increase based on the second law of thermodynamics. This implies the arithmetic mean of the initial temperatures is greater than or equal to the geometric mean, proving the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality. The proof also notes the sharp case occurs when all initial temperatures are equal.

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    An Entropy Proof of The Arithmetic Mean Geometric Mean Inequality

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    kzeipi
    103 views3 pages
    The document summarizes an entropy proof of the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality. It describes bodies with masses m1, m2, etc. coming into thermal contact and reaching a common temperature T. Using entropy equations, it shows the total entropy of the system must increase based on the second law of thermodynamics. This implies the arithmetic mean of the initial temperatures is greater than or equal to the geometric mean, proving the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality. The proof also notes the sharp case occurs when all initial temperatures are equal.

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    An Entropy Proof of the Arithmetic Mean Geometric Mean Inequality

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    The document summarizes an entropy proof of the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality. It describes bodies with masses m1, m2, etc. coming into thermal contact and reaching a common temperature T. Using entropy equations, it shows the total entropy of the system must increase based on the second law of thermodynamics. This implies the arithmetic mean of the initial temperatures is greater than or equal to the geometric mean, proving the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality. The proof also notes the sharp case occurs when all initial temperatures are equal.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    103 views3 pages

    An Entropy Proof of The Arithmetic Mean Geometric Mean Inequality

    Uploaded by

    kzeipi
    The document summarizes an entropy proof of the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality. It describes bodies with masses m1, m2, etc. coming into thermal contact and reaching a common temperature T. Using entropy equations, it shows the total entropy of the system must increase based on the second law of thermodynamics. This implies the arithmetic mean of the initial temperatures is greater than or equal to the geometric mean, proving the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality. The proof also notes the sharp case occurs when all initial temperatures are equal.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 3

    The American Mathematical Monthly

    ISSN: 0002-9890 (Print) 1930-0972 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uamm20

    An Entropy Proof of the Arithmetic


    Mean–Geometric Mean Inequality

    Cole Graham & Tadashi Tokieda

    To cite this article: Cole Graham & Tadashi Tokieda (2020) An Entropy Proof of the Arithmetic
    Mean–Geometric Mean Inequality, The American Mathematical Monthly, 127:6, 545-546, DOI:
    10.1080/00029890.2020.1738827

    To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00029890.2020.1738827

    Published online: 21 May 2020.

    Submit your article to this journal

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    https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=uamm20
    NOTES
    Edited by Vadim Ponomarenko

    An Entropy Proof of the


    Arithmetic Mean–Geometric Mean
    Inequality
    Cole Graham and Tadashi Tokieda

    Abstract. Many proofs are known for the inequality between the arithmetic mean and the
    geometric mean. This note gives a new derivation, interpreting the means as final and initial
    values of entropy, and the inequality as the second law of thermodynamics.

    Imagine bodies of mass m1 , m2 , . . . having the same specific heat c. Recall that
    specific heat is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature, by one degree, of a
    unit mass of that material; it is measured in joule/(kelvin · kg). Materials that warm or
    cool easily have small c, those that are hard to warm or cool have large c. Write
    mi 
    pi = , M= mi .
    M i
    
    The p’s satisfy 0  pi  1 for all i and i pi = 1. Here is a fact of nature: If those
    bodies, from initial temperatures T1 , T2 , . . . , are brought into thermal contact with one
    another, then they eventually settle (asymptote) to a common temperature
    
    T  = pi T i .
    i

    When the ith body changes its temperature by dTi , the heat it receives is cMpi dTi ,
    and its entropy changes by

    cMpi dTi
    dSi = = cMpi d log Ti .
    Ti
    The first equal sign encodes the definition of entropy—the intake of heat divided by
    the absolute temperature. Let us run the process from start to finish. As T  is the final
    temperature by the fact above,
     
    Sifinish − Sistart = cM pi logT  − pi log Ti .

    Summing over all bodies, we get


        
    pi
    Sifinish − Sistart = cM pi logT  − log Ti
    i i i i

    doi.org/10.1080/00029890.2020.1738827
    MSC: Primary 26D15, Secondary 82C05; 80A20

    June–July 2020] NOTES 545


      p
    = cM logT  − log Ti i .
    i

    Now the second law of thermodynamics says that the total entropy of the system must
    increase: the left-hand side is positive. Hence so is the right-hand side, which implies
    p p
    p1 T 1 + p2 T 2 + · · ·  T 1 2 × T 2 2 × · · · .

    The sharp case is when all the initial temperatures were equal already

    T1 = T2 = · · ·

    for this is the only case that involves no heat exchange.

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. The work of CG was supported by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation and by
    NSF grant DGE-1656518.

    Department of Mathematics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2125, USA


    [email protected]
    [email protected]

    546 
    c THE MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA [Monthly 127

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