>you prove my case perfectly, I am an engineer. What
To refresh your memory, you stated, "[Evolution] defies
the laws of thermodynamics in tremendous ways. How
about the law that says that all matter moves from order
to chaos?"
Since there is no such "law" (as I have already informed
you previously), let's skip the parading of credentials
in order to cut to the chase.
You may possibly suffer from an oversimplified concept
of the second law of thermodynamics, which correctly
states that entropy never decreases (though it may
remain constant, as for instance when a gas expands
adiabatically and reversibly, thus exhibiting an ideally
isentropic process).
Nothing whatsoever in thermodynamics states that
an increase in entropy implies a local decrease
in order everywhere, however. For the moment,
I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to discover
a few counterexamples to the claim that entropy
necessarily implies isotropically greater disorder.
Education begins, after all, with challenges to think
more clearly by working things out for yourself
first. (I will of course provide examples upon request
if need be, but I do not wish to eliminate the
opportunity for you to save face by correcting your
own mistaken notions independently.)
This should be a relatively simple challenge, in any
event. Please try to give it some thought before
submitting some emotional knee-jerk response.
(The exercise is open to all those reading this, too,
as I would be pleased to see what unexpectedly
new responses might be forthcoming from what is
a remarkably creative selection of people.)
>Are you out of High school yet. You obviously have
Good grief. Such ignorance is surpassed only by the
unwarranted arrogance being put on display there.
Well, I shouldn't be too hard on you for falling for a
common misconception, I suppose, especially since
it is true that even college level physics texts will
often introduce the concept (on an elementary level)
by illustrating entropy as a more "disordered"
molecular state. The problem with that pedagogical
approach, in my opinion, is that it results in exactly
the misconception you are suffering from when that
is as far as one gets.
Finally, Ken, you may find it helpful to consider the
physical units of entropy applied in several diverse
applications before making any egregiously
erroneous dogmatic statements on the subject.
Or you may not, depending on your level of
education. It is thus far quite unclear what a BSME
actually contributes to an education in physics.
I'm looking forward to what would ideally be an
intelligible and constructive reply dealing with the
implications of thermodynamics on matters
of order and disorder, considering both their
local and global aspects (sometimes considered
"open" and "closed" systems, respectively).
---
Robert Curry
Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.
To: "Ken Carl"
Subject: evolution
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 01:02:15 -0500
>are your credentials? I have a BSME from the University
>of Akron and am working on my masters.
>never had and physics!
St. Petersburg, Florida
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