Pearls for Annie

THERMODYNAMICS, MOST BRIEFLY

Annie, I do not want to overburden you with scientific jargon, but I cannot imagine a human living out their natural life without being exposed minimally to the Four Laws of Thermodynamics.

The Zeroth Law in its simplicity makes a definition of temperature possible.

The First and Second Laws are the ones closer to being absolute. The First most simply stated says that the amount of matter:energy in the universe is constant and therefore conserved. One can be converted into another, but the sum will always be constant. The First Law commonly stated is that matter and energy can be converted from one to the other. Actually matter is a form of energy.

The Third Law states that the energy in the universe available to do work is decreasing as the entropy (measure of disorder) in the universe increases. This will eventually lead to the "Heat Death" of the universe when change becomes zero (a very, very, very long time from now). The direction of time is set by the Second Law of Thermodynamics since one cannot "un mix" a cake (high entropy/more disordered - favored by nature) into its ingredients (lower entropy/more ordered: flour, eggs, milk, baking powder, sugar).

The Fourth Law states that the entropy of a perfect crystal at absolute zero or 0 degrees Kelvin is zero. This means that in a perfect crystal, at 0 degrees Kelvin, all molecular motion should cease. [Note: (from Wikipedia) "A perfect crystal is one in which the internal lattice structure is the same at all times; in other words, it is fixed and non-moving, and does not have rotational or vibrational energy. This means that there is only one way in which this order can be attained: when every particle of the structure is in its proper place."] By the way, Annie, it is impossible to create a perfect crystal just as it is to create anything perfect. Remember that the only place where perfection can exist is in the sanctity of the Mind and that any manifestation of a perfect idea into the physical world will be imperfect. This is why we can always improve.)