Carnot engine

A Carnot engine is an idealized heat engine that operates between two temperatures: a hot source and a cold sink. It was proposed by the French physicist Sadi Carnot in the 1820s as a theoretical model to understand how engines convert heat into work. The efficiency of a Carnot engine depends only on the temperatures of the two sources, demonstrating that no real engine can be more efficient than a Carnot engine operating between the same temperatures. This concept helped lay the groundwork for the second law of thermodynamics and our understanding of energy conversion.