[FRIAM] Entropy Dux^3

[Nicholas Thompson]

Dear Long Suffering Friamers

I think I have now managed to come up with a macrostate statement of a
phenomenon that requires entropy for its understanding.  It parallels
Lincoln's aphorism about fooling all of the people.

*Assuming friction free and quasistatic motion and total insulation where
appropriate:*

*If you put a bunch of energy into a system by working on it,**you can
recover all that energy as work.*

*If you put a bunch of energy into a system by heating it,**you can recover
all that energy as heating,*

*If you put a bunch of energy into a system by working on it,** you can
recover all that energy as heating.*

*But if you put a bunch of energy into a system by heating, you can NOT
recover all of that energy as work. *

I think this is the asymmetry that requires the invention of entropy.

Am I finally getting my Dux in a row?

Nick

-- 
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
Clark University
nthompson at clarku.edu
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson
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