[baudrunner]

Thank you, Michelle. I aspire to be recognized as a writer and you are contributing to my satisfaction.

To me, witing must have purpose. There must be a component within the content that generates thought upon the reading of it. To write properly one must avoid rambling and diatribe. It is absolutely permissable to write about things one knows nothing about so long as there is an elegance within. My secret device is logic. I believe that all things in nature are expressions of the same inherent pattern. For example, a sentence is constructed from subject and predicate and contains nouns, adjectives, verbs, conjunctions etc. All these more or less are organized in a logical format and framed by proper punctuation, beginning with a capital and ending with a period or other form to express intent. This literal concept of organization is extended to paragraphing and further to chaptering. In the end a large document is framed by its title page, prefaced, foreworded and wrapped neatly in a cover. The format of a story follows introduction, where the scene is set, to plot and sub plot description, to climax/anti-climax and thence to resolution. So you see that there is a logical plan to the generation of a finished product that stands out above other writings that have no organization. If the writing contains within it an elegantly logical theory based on the extrapolation of data derived from empirical evidence then that work is noteworthy because it will make a new sense to an intelligent reader and that gives the reader a sense of satisfaction. What better way to generate noteworthyness then to submit posts to a discussion forum? Keep stroking my ego. I like it.

Let me know your thoughts on The TOE part four.

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The cigarette before it is lit has the same entropy. That is, it has the same thermodynamics, volume, mass, density, etc. When the cigarette is lit and allowed to burn down, its entropy is changing, that is, its thermodynamics is changing, its volume and so on are changing. When the cigarette has reverted to the state of a butt, after it has been extinguished and it is just lying there in the ashtray, it has the same entropy, that is, its thermodynamics is the same, its volume is the same and so on.

Entropy is just a word. It is a generic term which can be applied to all systems, of which a cigarette is just one. It is a convenient adjunct to all the other words in the English language.

I repeat, in physics entropy is a state variable.