Contest: Win a heart by stating a law of thermodynamics uniquely in this thread.

[NNadir]

I have some DU hearts to give away before Tuesday.

I learn things by reading, and thinking about what's written, at DU (and other places). I also learn by writing at DU, which requires having references in most cases, and when I look these references up, I learn.

Thus I'm proposing this contest, which may or may not any or much generate interest, but it's worth a shot.

I think people can and should inform their ideas about energy by having at least a primitive knowledge of thermodynamic laws. Without such knowledge one can embrace ideas that are either simply unworkable at best, dangerous at worst.

As the name of this forum implies, energy and the environment are tightly related; the production of primary energy always, in any form, involves risk. We can minimize, but not eliminate risk to the environment and to humanity, by increasing exergy, exergy being the technical term for energy that put to used rather than rejected to the environment.

In my opinion it is useless to discuss energy and its effect on the environment without understanding how energy flows, in short "dyamics," of "heat" (thermo), heat having been critical to the original discovery of what energy actually is as a currency, in the work of James Joule, for whom the unit of energy, the Joule, is named. "Thermodynamics" thus means the flow of energy.

The contest is this: Post a thermodynamic law here in a way that no other poster in this thread has stated and I'll give you a DU heart.

It can be a mathematical formula, but a statement in plain English is preferred, since these are accessible to anyone. Googling is allowed, but a winner of a star must produce the statement for the first time in this thread. Multiple entries are allowed up to three stars. The contestant should give the name of the law of thermodynamics to which she, he, or they are referring with the statement.

As an example - I will not give myself a heart - a statement of the 2nd law of thermodynamics is one I use all the time at DU: "Storing energy wastes it."

By the way, there are laws of thermodynamics beyond the famous "first law," "second law," "third law" and "zeroth law." Any thermodynamic law will do so long as it is named. The contest runs for 25 stars awarded but may be extended.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. The house always wins. NT

[NNadir]

2. That's a good one. Name the law and get a heart.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Ah, let someone else have a heart. I have enough. Thanks anyway. NT

[NNadir]

4. I'll give you another anyway, as the first entrant, stating the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Thanks. I've long thought

that DUers should be able to buy unhearts. I post a lot of things that have resulted in my posts being removed. I think that people who hate the things I say should be able to unheart me too.

The unhearts would be a different color from the hearts; yellow, maybe, so that you could see how many people didn't like your posts as well as how many people did like your posts.

For posts in the Civil Liberties group alone, I could set some kind of record.

And good morning.

[NNadir]

27. My son has offered the theory that the elimination of thumbs down in many places of social media...

...- I believe he was referring to Facebook which I never joined, has led to the normalization of racism, violence, nazism and many pernicious elements in our culture.

I'm quite sure that if there were an "anti-heart" at DU, I'd join you in collecting them because of my advocacy of nuclear energy as the only sustainable form of energy there is. This is an unpopular idea in many places on the left, but one I believe is essential to human survival. (I had a poster here the other day in a now removed post who stated that she regretted I wasn't dead.)

This said, I think that it is important to address dogma - in my case it's anti-nuke dogma. We cannot solve the world's increasingly exigent problems by chanting.

The problem with social media is, in my view, is that it has moved toward slick short statements devoid of context or depth.

Sound bites are often appeals to ignorance via emotion, and they hurt more than they help.

I think the concept of "tweets" is not good for developing a rational culture. The TWIT in TWITter says everything one needs to say about the topic.

[James48]

5. Dixie's second law

When she snuggles up against my leg, under the covers- and brings her furry warmth to me.

That is a really good one.

[NNadir]

8. The cat and you are both subject to the laws of thermodynamics, but regrettably...

...the existence of the cat and your leg, does not state a law of thermodynamics, and does not qualify here. Feel free to try again.

[old as dirt]

7. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better.

[NNadir]

10. That may qualify. Attach the name of a the law in question for a heart.

[Tetrachloride]

9. Not all of the absorbed payments from

lobbyists to politicians or judges will result in real work.

[NNadir]

16. If money were truly related to energy, so called "renewable energy" would be a significant...

...source of energy.

It isn't.

Money and the laws of thermodynamics are regrettably not actually related.

[cachukis]

11. Heat rises, actually moves to a cooler place. 2nd I think.

[NNadir]

21. Not the second law, but I'll credit it for a statement of Charles' law:

It also refers to a mechanical law of buoyancy.

You get a heart.

[cachukis]

52. Thanks. My brain is old.

[NNadir]

53. An old brain is better than no brain.

You embraced the goal of this thread, to make yourself think about the laws of thermodynamics.

By the way, my brain is hardly young.

[cachukis]

54. Yes.

[sanatanadharma]

12. We need to push back against the Maga ..

... it takes the outside force of moral truth to stop, delay, or turn aside the immoral-maga-force impelled in its current momentum from trump's maga-billiards-ball-break on the table.

[old as dirt]

13. Here's a King Crimson tune about entropy and the heat death of the universe. (as near as I can tell)

King Crimson - Starless

[NNadir]

25. I'll take your word for it; I don't have time to listen.

I'll give you another heart.

[old as dirt]

14. Entropic Time (Backwards Billy Joel Parody) A Capella Science

[NNadir]

18. Here's a heart.

[Mousetoescamper]

15. If you push something hard enough, it will fall over - Fudd's First Law of Opposition

[NNadir]

17. A fun statement of a law of mechanics, not thermodynamics.

[Mousetoescamper]

38. A serious answer: Split your own firewood and it will warm you twice - First law

I tried to take the contest seriously and, of course, Googled first law of thermodynamics. There were examples given--ice cubes melting, applying the brakes on a car and so on--but my answer didn't come from the internet. I remembered the old saying, Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice, and thought it might be a good example of the first law.

[NNadir]

40. OK. I'll buy that. Here's a heart.

[Easterncedar]

48. Firesign!

[Mousetoescamper]

49. But of oourse! Half of what goes in here must come out there - Teslacle's Deviant to Fudd's Law

[2naSalit]

19. No matter where you go, there you are.

Or energy does not dissipate, it can only transform. Not sure which one this is... could be 2na's Law of Probabilities.



ETA: I donate any additional hearts to someone who doesn't have one or has few.

[NNadir]

22. If one means "destroy" by "dissipate" it's a statement of the first law of thermodynamics.

PM me for someone you'd like to give a star who doesn't have many.

[Srkdqltr]

20. Laws are made to be broken.

[NNadir]

23. A lot of people seem to believe that about the laws of thermodynamics, which is an unfortunate...

...form of dangerous ignorance.

[Locrian]

24. Hell from an engineering approach

Hell from an engineering approach
https://www-users.york.ac.uk/~ss44/joke/exoendo.htm

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington engineering mid term. The answer was so profound that the Professor shared it with colleagues, which is why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or Endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law, (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

"First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:

If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa Banyan during my Freshman year, "...that it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you." and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then, #2 cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze."

This student received the only A.

[NNadir]

26. I love this one, having come across it many times. You get a heart.

[Locrian]

33. thanks! - it's an oldie but a goodie - nt/

[Backseat Driver]

28. How about, if you are hot under the collar - take a walk

The heat will be released because a walk is work (muscles expanding and contracting), but you might still be cognitively upset about whatever made you take that walk... or

or Never stick one's finger in a pot of "warmed" sugar to test its structure before adding it to the grape juice in the process of making jelly.

[NNadir]

35. You have accurately stated a situation involving thermodynamics in the first case...

...but not necessarily a law of thermodynamics.

The second case might loosely refer to the "zeroth law" so I'll give you a heart despite the (loose) contest rule that one must name the law.

[Backseat Driver]

45. Thanks for the heart - back to browser

to learn more...

[Hugh_Lebowski]

29. Without maintenance, every system will break down over time

2nd Law.

[NNadir]

30. OK, I'll buy that one. You get a heart.

[Turbineguy]

31. Those without power

seek to get even.

Conservation of energy.

[NNadir]

32. OK. I'll buy it. YOU, I know, from your posts here, are intimately familiar...

...with the laws of thermodynamics.

You're not a part of the problem; you're a part of the solution.

Here's a heart, heartily given!

[unblock]

34. If the rantings of mtg and boebert are each as equally fevered as those of Santos,

Then they are equally fevered as each other.

0th law.

[NNadir]

36. While mtg, boebert, and Santos are all zeros, this does not refer to a law of thermodynamics.

You get kudos for stating a law of logic while also amazingly simultaneously referring to these three awful human beings, but not a heart in this contest.

[unblock]

37. Too metaphorical?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeroth_law_of_thermodynamics

Ok these same 3 "zeroes" are huddled up and isolated from external stimuli, two are the same temperature as the third, then the first two are the same temperature as each other.

[NNadir]

39. OK, I'll buy this statement based on the clarification of what I found obscure. You get a heart...

...and a complement on subtle wit.

[unblock]

41. Thank you and thank you!

If I'm gonna do this sort of thing, I'm gonna do it with a bit of cheek

[imaginary girl]

42. I'll go for the simple approach...

We can't create or destroy energy, but we can change its form to make something we can use. First law.

[NNadir]

43. OK, here's a heart.

[Chainfire]

44. First Law: 'Ya don't get something for nothing.

[NNadir]

46. One often swept under the rug by public fantasy. Here's a heart.

[Chainfire]

47. Thank you!

[consider_this]

50. Expect things to become increasingly disorderly

2nd law

[NNadir]

51. That works. You earn a heart.