scholarly journals The Second Law of Thermodynamics in the Context of Contemporary Physical Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 142-159
Author(s):  
Ivan A. Karpenko ◽  

The second law results in the growth of the entropy – in superficial interpretation this principle presumes that the sufficient energy inevitably turns into the substandard energy. Order turns into chaos over time; however, chaos also turns into order under certain circumstances. The first research objective is to establish the possible prescientific ideas about the phenomenon – some philosophical intuitions that have preceded the scientific discovery of the second law and have conformed to it in a certain sense. It is essential because there are always certain bonds and continuity in the history of philosophy and science – the correct interpretation of the phenomenon becomes difficult, if not impossible, without the establishment of such bonds.Moreover, the main task is to understand what the second law is and which significance its principal corollaries have. We need to give the second law a correct interpretation that will allow making assumptions about its connection with time in the context of the initial state problem and about the possible new ways of modern physics development – in particular, the creation of the quantum theory of gravity. Two solutions to the entropy and initial state connection problem are proposed in the context of the time arrow discussion (G. Calender’s approach to solving the problem is disputed).

1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Hutchison

In the history of thermodynamics, two dates stand out as especially important: 1824, when Sadi Carnot's brilliant memoir Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu appeared in print; and 1850, when Rudolf Clausius published his similarly titled paper ‘Ueber die bewegende Kraft der Wärme’. In this paper Clausius narrowly beat the Scottish physicist William Thomson to the solution of a puzzle which had been highlighted in the latter's recent publications: how could Carnot's theory, with all its intellectual attractions, be reconciled with the newly discovered principle of the inter-convertibility of heat and work? Clausius's solution (as is well known) was to replace Carnot's axiom of heat conservation, with the axiom now known as the second law of thermodynamics.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (33) ◽  
pp. 1750182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali İhsan Keskin ◽  
Irfan Acikgoz

In this study, the validity of the generalized second law of thermodynamics (GSLT) has been investigated in F(R, G) gravity. We consider that the boundary of the universe is surrounded by an apparent horizon in the spatially flat Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) universe, and we take into account the Hawking temperature on the horizons. The unified solutions of the field equations corresponding to gravity theory have been applied to the validity of the GSLT frame, and in this way, both the solutions have been verified and all the expansion history of the universe has been shown in a unified picture.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Engelsted

Explaining the role, importance, and basic layout of general psychology, the paper has two parts. In the first part, told as a ghost story, we visit the long history of general psychology and its usual absence, aka the crisis of psychology. Drawing on the insights of among others George Henry Lewes, Herbert Spencer, Karl Bühler, and Lev Vygotsky, a number of requirements are listed that the author believes are necessary for a general psychology. In the second part is sketched the author’s proposal for such a general psychology. Built on Aristotle’s taxonomy of bio-psyches, the proposal divides psychology into four subdomains, each in need of explanation. In evolutionary sequence: Sentience, which posits the psychological present moment or now. Intentionality, which posits the future. Mind, which posits the past. Human consciousness, which posits the view from without. Sentience remains unexplained. Intentionality is linked to the second law of thermodynamics. Mind is linked to REMS in mammals. Human consciousness is linked to a new understanding of human evolution in which all the defining attributes of the human being – society, consciousness, and language – arrive all at once and together.


2009 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Zanoni Tadeu Saraiva dos Santos

RESUMO O ensino da segunda lei da termodinâmica e do seu conceito, associado à entropia, tem sido considerado problemático por vários autores. Nesse trabalho iremos compilar os problemas levantados por alguns destes autores na perspectiva de sintetizar as questões e soluções sugeridas, como forma de ampliar a discussão sobre como tratar didaticamente a segunda lei da termodinâmica e a entropia na Física do ensino médio. Fizemos um breve levantamento da abordagem dada ao assunto pelos livros didáticos e propomos que a história e a epistemologia da ciência tenham um papel estruturante em uma prática educativa pautada pelo diálogo. Sugerimos, como parte da construção de um caminho para a entropia, o estabelecimento de três momentos epistemológicos dentro da história da termodinâmica. Esses três momentos serão os balizadores de uma abordagem mais significativa no sentido de que a história da ciência não tenha apenas um papel periférico para o estudo da segunda lei e da entropia. Palavras-chave: Termodinâmica, entropia, ensino, história da ciência. TEACHING ENTROPY IN SECONDARY PHYSICS: ANALYSIS OF TEXTBOOKS AND A HISTORICAL APPROACH. ABSTRACT Many authors consider teaching the second law of thermodynamics historically problematic. In this paper we will compile problems raised by some of these authors in the perspective of synthesizing questions and solutions suggested, as a mean to widen the discussion on how to treat didactically the second law and entropy in high school level. We did a brief review on how textbooks approach this subject and came to a conclusion that the history of science and the study of relationships among, science, technology and society should be considered as integrating part of any didactical approach grounded in a dialogical educational view. We suggest as part of a way to entropy, the establishment of three epistemological moments within the history of thermodynamics. These three moments will serve as guiding elements for a more meaningful approach, in a sense that the history of science will not only play a peripheral role in the didactic treatment of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics. Keywords: Thermodynamics, entropy, teaching, history of science.


Quantum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 408
Author(s):  
Patryk Lipka-Bartosik ◽  
Paweł Mazurek ◽  
Michał Horodecki

In stochastic thermodynamics work is a random variable whose average is bounded by the change in the free energy of the system. In most treatments, however, the work reservoir that absorbs this change is either tacitly assumed or modelled using unphysical systems with unbounded Hamiltonians (i.e. the ideal weight). In this work we describe the consequences of introducing the ground state of the battery and hence — of breaking its translational symmetry. The most striking consequence of this shift is the fact that the Jarzynski identity is replaced by a family of inequalities. Using these inequalities we obtain corrections to the second law of thermodynamics which vanish exponentially with the distance of the initial state of the battery to the bottom of its spectrum. Finally, we study an exemplary thermal operation which realizes the approximate Landauer erasure and demonstrate the consequences which arise when the ground state of the battery is explicitly introduced. In particular, we show that occupation of the vacuum state of any physical battery sets a lower bound on fluctuations of work, while batteries without vacuum state allow for fluctuation-free erasure.


Entropy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 1170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arieh Ben-Naim

This article is about the profound misuses, misunderstanding, misinterpretations and misapplications of entropy, the Second Law of Thermodynamics and Information Theory. It is the story of the “Greatest Blunder Ever in the History of Science”. It is not about a single blunder admitted by a single person (e.g., Albert Einstein allegedly said in connection with the cosmological constant, that this was his greatest blunder), but rather a blunder of gargantuan proportions whose claws have permeated all branches of science; from thermodynamics, cosmology, biology, psychology, sociology and much more.


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