[AntonioLao]

Maybe he meant a live person since dead person always agree and can't talk back.

[Profpat]

He is very fixated on his belief that all is =. which in itself is OK, but we usually get this same thing a few times a day. AAHHHHH!!!!

[dleviwing]

Hi Antony;
Entropy is a rather useless term since it only defines differential states of matter. It works well for steam engines but as you said it’s not functional enough to work with nuclear. I’ve found that the only real useful term for defining temperature is “degree of freedom”. Thermodynamics should be kept in the engineering fields and kept out of the pure physics endeavors.

[AntonioLao]

Then he ought to be afraid of virtual works see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_work

[Profpat]

I thought degree of freedom had to do with the uncertainty principle David. From your favorite WIKI:
Degrees of freedom in mechanics (physics)
In mechanics, for each particle belonging to a system, and for each independent direction in which movement is possible, two degrees of freedom are defined, one describing the particle's momentum in that direction, the other describing the particle's position along an axis defined by that direction.

[dleviwing]

You left out a very important one Profpat; vibration. A vibrating object has infinite degree of freedom. Stop all rotation and all vibration and you have “absolute zero temperature”; you can’t do that with an atomic structure.
wiki/Degrees_of_freedom

[JAK]

Originally Posted by dleviwing Hi Antony; Entropy is a rather useless term since it only defines differential states of matter. It works well for steam engines but as you said it’s not functional enough to work with nuclear. ...

Entropy also has application in biology and psychology. In "What Is Life?", Erwin Schrödinger describes the primary direction of living organisms as being toward negative entropy (orderliness). More recently, Stuart Kauffman took up this same idea saying that organisms (Autonomous Agents in his lingo) "ratchet" away from equillibrium (chaos/disorder).

You are probably right, David, about entropy's usefulness to understanding nuclear physics, but the concept of orderliness (negative entropy) seems hauntingly appropos.

[AntonioLao]

Originally Posted by dleviwing Thermodynamics should be kept in the engineering fields

I would have warned Planck about this before he formulated old quantum theory. In any case, I wasn't born before 1900.

[Profpat]

Originally Posted by AntonioLao I would have warned Planck about this before he formulated old quantum theory. In any case, I wasn't born before 1900.

I knew Max, he was a friend of mine.

[mkirkpatrick]

Originally Posted by Profpat I knew Max, he was a friend of mine.

Would that be the same Max Pat?Or prehaps another one!



regards michael.