define maximum work.

In thehistory of science, theprinciple of maximum workwas a postulate concerning the relationship betweenchemical reactions,heatevolution, and the potentialworkproduced there from. The principle was developed in approximate form in 1875 by French chemistMarcellin Berthelot, in the field ofthermochemistry, and then later in 1876 by American mathematical physicistWillard Gibbs, in the field ofthermodynamics, in a more accurate form. Berthelot's version was essentially: "every pure chemical reaction is accompanied by evolution of heat." (and that this yields the maximum amount of work). The effects ofirreversibility, however, showed this version to be incorrect. This was rectified, in thermodynamics, by incorporating the concept ofentropy.