From: John Burgeson (hoss_radbourne@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Sep 03 2002 - 16:37:09 EDT
>>They are late. The second law bit the dust in 1999. See the archives
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/physics/9907011
>>
I looked at that site. Interesting. My physics and math have eroded
sufficiently that I cannot be a judge of most of it.
Since it assumes an unattainable physical system, I am not sure it really
invalidates the 2nd law, which I always understood to be a statistical
statement. Thus, in a closed system (gas in a container, for instance), it
is POSSIBLE that at some point due to random collisions that most of the
particles would be found, say, at the top, and so, the entropy would have
decreased accordingly. That possiblilty, of course, is pretty small, and
also the positions of the particles short-lived.
Another way of describing it is to say that the 2nd law, applied to my
financial well-being, tells me I should not count on winning the lottery.
It does not tell me that nobody will ever win.
Thanks for the reference.
Burgy
Burgy
www.burgy.50megs.com
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