RE: Entropy/lose the math, need laypersons def..
December 21, 2017 at 7:51 pm
(This post was last modified: December 21, 2017 at 8:00 pm by Magilla.)
(December 16, 2017 at 7:25 pm)Succubus Wrote: It's actually far more simple than that.
Entropy:
Quote:A thermodynamic quantity representing the amount of energy in a system that is no longer available for doing mechanical work."
The second law of thermodynamics:
Place a glass of hot water and a glass of cold water in a perfectly insulated container. This is a disordered state. Over a period of time the hot water will cool down and the cold water will heat up. Now you have equilibrium, an ordered state, maximum entropy. no work can be done, ie, no more energy can pass from one body to the other.
Surely . . .
The second law of thermodynamics :
Place a glass of hot water and a glass of cold water in a perfectly insulated container. This is an
ordered state. Over a period of time the hot water will cool down and the cold water will heat up. Now you have equilibrium, a
disordered state, maximum entropy. no work can be done, ie, no more energy can pass from one body to the other.
Initially the system is ordered, with higher energy located in one region, middle energy in another, and ground energy dispersed around. That is
order, because - you can find something - where the high energy is located. As with a teenager's bedroom, if the socks are in the sock drawer, the underwear in the underwear drawer, the shirts and pants in the wardrobe, that is an ordered state - you can find something - eg. socks in the sock drawer. If the teenager is untidy, the socks could be anywhere, (under the bed, on the window sill etc.), as would all of the other contents of the untidy room. Things are to be found in
no special place, and it is
disordered.
With the two glass example, the principle is that the energy will re-locate, to be more and more evenly distributed, within the isolated, (insulated), system. As that energy goes through the process of relocating, it can be harnessed to do some work.
Once the system has stabilised, the energy is evenly distributed throughout, and there is no trend in the movement in the energy. { Energy may move about, but equally in every direction. Thus it can no longer be harnessed to do work, since any thrust in vector direction X (=>), is countered by an equal and opposite thrust in vector direction -X (<=) }.
Two glasses in an isolated system is a very small system; we are making the assumption, for instance, that there is nothing else in that system, ie. it's just two glasses of water, an insulated perimeter, and whatever the ground medium happens to be, (maybe air or a vacuum).
The universe is huge, and localised regions, (which may be vast, eg. the solar system), can be harnessed, to result in some sub-regions that are even lower in entropy, (ie. possibly more organised), at the expense of some creation of a higher level of entropy in another sub-locality. In other words, if left alone, the entropy will go up overall throughout, but it may be that entropy lowers in one place and raises in another, so that entropy will still go up overall throughout.
It is entirely possible for the entropy to lessen in one place, and rise more so than if left alone, in another place. In this case, overall the entropy will have risen
on average, in agreeance with the 2LoT, (Second Law of Thermodynamics). So entropy goes
down in one place, and correspondingly
up even more in another. Of course, for this to happen, requires some form of "engine" ~ maybe a living cell's structure, a steam engine etc.
