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Carnot Cycle
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The Carnot cycle is an idealized four-step thermodynamic cycle, two isothermal processes and two adiabatic processes, describing a heat engine running between a hot and a cold reservoir at the maximum efficiency thermodynamically possible for any engine working between those two temperatures. No real engine can exceed it, and it remains the theoretical benchmark against which every heat engine's efficiency is measured.
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Proposed Year Proposed BySadi Carnot, in his 1824 memoir Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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