Re: Second law of Thermodynamics

Moorad Alexanian (alexanian@UNCWIL.EDU)
Tue, 18 Nov 1997 15:42:40 -0500 (EST)

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At 03:11 PM 11/18/97 -0500, Jan de Koning wrote:
>
>>Moorad wrote:
>Moorad wrote:
>>
>>The second
>>law of thermodynamics came about in order to unify all the irreversible
>>phenomena observed in nature. But the question of why there is a law like
>>that or how did the universe start is quite a different issue.
>>
>Not everyone agrees with this law. I am not a physicist but as far as I
>know it only holds for closd sytems. It has not been show to be true for
>open systems. See for example Price in Time's Arrow (Oxford, 1996). Page
>7 in the Introduction: "Why was entropy low in the past? The chapter (2)
>concludes with adiscussionas to what it is that really needs to be
>explained about the assymetry of thermodynamics." See page 262 as well,
>where chapter two is condensed.
>
>Jan de Koning
>Willowdale, Ont.

The law deals with isolated systems only. If applied to the universe, the
law would indicate that the universe began in a highly improbable
configuration and is evolving into a more probable configuration. This is
also related to the direction of time. Of course, this is what physicists
believe. No one has a theory for it.

Moorad

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