The two laws of engines in general, information and the meaning of entropy

Penha Maria Cardozo Dias

Published 2023-04-20Version 1

The association of information with entropy has been argued on plausibility arguments involving the operation of imaginary engines and beings, and it is not a universal theorem. In this paper, a theorem by Charles Bennett on reversible computation is recognized as the much needed theorem. It is proposed a real, non thermal engine, operated by humans. Its operation has stages analogous to the stages in Bennett's reversible three-tape computer. The engine makes possible to prove two results: (1) the engine operates on two laws, similar to the laws of thermodynamics, which are conditions on the possibility of resetting the engine; (2) entropy is the measure of erased information, and is measured in physical units, which complies with Landauer's principle. A prototype at work is shown in video.