José C. Iñiguez

Centro de Investigación en Termodinámica y Fenómenos Auto-Organizativos, CITER, Av. Panamericana 357, Agua Prieta Sonora, México 84200, Mexico.
E-mail: [email protected]

Received: 19 October 1999 / Accepted: 26 October 1999 / Published: 30 October 1999

Abstract: This paper, the first in a series of four, will expose the lack of inner consistency of the analysis through which Clausius re-expressed the second law of thermodynamics: "Heat cannot, of itself, pass from a colder to a hotter body", as the law of increasing entropy: "The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum". In the two following papers the flaw in Clausius analysis producing the said lack of consistency will be located, corrected and some of its consequences, discussed. Among them the one stating that the identification of the two above written statements of the second law is valid only under certain circumstances. In the fourth and final

Keywords: Clausius; cyclical processes; entropy; transformations; inconsistencies.