
Carnot Cycles - The Turing Machines of Thermodynamics 97
completely absorbed by the walls and re-emitted into the cavity. This process of ab-
sorption and remission brings the radiation into thermal equilibrium with the cavity,
and consequently assumes the same temperature as the latter.
That radiation, one of whose familiar forms is light, can be in a state of thermal
equilibrium is actually rather profound; it is as amazing as the possibility that light
could fall under gravity! Of course, the latter is not just a possibility now, it is a well
established consequence of Einstein’s General Relativity theory. It is indeed true that
the details of the ...