Abstract
Thermodynamics and economics have developed independently through the last centuries. Only in the last three decades, scientists have realized the close relationship between economics and physics. The name of the new field is econophysics: In double-entry accounting, the sum of monetary and productive accounts is zero. In calculus, monetary and productive accounts may be represented by Stokes integrals. In engineering, Stokes integrals lead to the two levels hot and cold of Carnot motors. In production, Stokes integrals lead to the two-level process: buy cheap and sell expensive. In economics, the two-level mechanism of capital and labor is called capitalism. A heat pump can extract heat from a cold river and heat up a warm house. A monetary circuit extracts capital from a poor population and makes a rich population richer! A running motor gets hotter, the efficiency, the difference in temperatures, grows with time. A running economy gets richer, the efficiency, the difference between rich and poor, grows.
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Mimkes, J. (2017). Thermodynamics and Economics. In: Šesták, J., Hubík, P., Mareš, J. (eds) Thermal Physics and Thermal Analysis. Hot Topics in Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45899-1_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45899-1_23
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