| | I just want to point out that the second law is statistical in nature, which has not really been discussed. Suppose you have a container with a partition separating two gases A and B. When the partition is removed, the entropy increases as the number of different microstates for this state is greater. It is possible that, just by chance, all the particles of gas A end up on one side and those of gas B on the other, so that it is the same state as when we started. Now there is only one microstate corresponding to this state, so the entropy has decreased. However, we never see this happen because the number of microstates for a more disordered system is vastly greater. My point is that it is wrong to say things like "heat always flows from hot to cold" or that "it is impossible for order to come from disorder". (Note that I'm not intentionally trying to quote anyone or say anything about evolution, I'm just talking about the physics)--[[User:bobklein|bobklein]] 14:34, 2 August 2016 (EST) | | I just want to point out that the second law is statistical in nature, which has not really been discussed. Suppose you have a container with a partition separating two gases A and B. When the partition is removed, the entropy increases as the number of different microstates for this state is greater. It is possible that, just by chance, all the particles of gas A end up on one side and those of gas B on the other, so that it is the same state as when we started. Now there is only one microstate corresponding to this state, so the entropy has decreased. However, we never see this happen because the number of microstates for a more disordered system is vastly greater. My point is that it is wrong to say things like "heat always flows from hot to cold" or that "it is impossible for order to come from disorder". (Note that I'm not intentionally trying to quote anyone or say anything about evolution, I'm just talking about the physics)--[[User:bobklein|bobklein]] 14:34, 2 August 2016 (EST) |
| | + | :It's interesting that a new user has come along with some new insights into the second law. Some people have, in the past, had difficulty editing that article. If this happens to you, feel free to edit my new page [[Essay:Commentary on Conservapedia's article on the second law of thermodynamics]]. [[User:SamHB|SamHB]] ([[User talk:SamHB|talk]]) 23:03, 2 August 2016 (EDT) |