Thermodynamics:
What is Thermodynamics and why is it even important?
Though this word sounds like it would be a highly complicated and technical scientific subject, it really isn’t. The word is derived from two Greek words:
Thermo, meaning Heat; and Dynamics, meaning active, moving and changing. Quite simply, thermodynamics is the study of the movement of heat. In all actuality it isn’t really even a study anymore. It has been resolved into what is now called The Four Laws of Thermodynamics. These are very easy to understand also, though they have far reaching implications both scientifically and philosophically.
The importance of this subject is based upon some well accepted facts about the Universe we live in. It all has to do with Matter, Energy, and Space – the three components of the Universe and Reality. Whether we believe GOD created the Universe or it just created itself, most will agree that it took a great deal of energy at some point in time. Whether from the Word of GOD or the mysterious "Big Bang", we can safely assume that there was a tremendous force focussed upon some point in space that resulted in the creation of the known Universe. Even from a non-religious scientific viewpoint; One great source of omnipotent energy was separated in a blinding flash of Light that gave rise to countless stars. In this explosion, that original mass of energy was divided into smaller pieces. The Sun is one such piece that still contains and emits energy. So is the Earth as the core is still a tremendous inferno. The Moon is a piece too, though it has cooled off almost entirely. In fact everything in Creation is a part of this original mass. Some has just cooled down more than others.
Nothing moves without energy, and heat is a measure of such energy. To walk across the room, even to type on the keys of a keyboard, requires some energy. Some activities we perform require more energy than others. We measure the amount of energy expended in Calories. The calorie is a measure of heat. Plants also require heat to exist and grow. The seed may gather it’s material components from the soil and water, but most require sunlight to live. Plants convert the heat from the Sun into energy they can use and store by the process of Photosynthesis. When we eat the plant, we then absorb the calories it has stored along with the material components we need.
The Sun also warms the atmosphere and the surface of the planets. This heat is the sole force behind the movement of weather. The Sun not only provides all the energy we need to live and grow in the form of food and sustenance, it also causes everything to move and recycle itself. It is partially for this reason that the oldest and most primitive of Earth’s peoples were Sun worshippers. The fact that the Sun was the most prominent and attractive thing to the primitive man is of no minor consequence, but some must have also understood how any plant will die if it is deprived the light of the Sun.
Because of this relationship of heat to the very existence of life itself, the study of thermodynamics became far more important than what it was originally designed to interpret. Thermodynamics owes it’s origins to the birth of the Steam Engine in the mid 19th century. The research then performed was intended to understand and predict the output of such engines. This leads us to the First Law of Thermodynamics:
I: When Heat is converted to Work, there is always some energy lost in the process.
First of all, it starts with a fire lit under a boiler. Much of the heat from the fire is absorbed by the boiler, but some only heats up the firebox and is radiated out into the surrounding air. Likewise, much of the heat of the boiling water is converted into steam, but some just heats up the boiler itself and is thus lost. After being converted into steam, the pressure can be used to drive a piston and thus convert the heat energy into mechanical energy. Again though, some heat will be lost heating up the sides of the piston cylinder and the piston itself. There are probably many other places and means by which the original heat produced by the fire is lost in the conversion process, but I am trying to keep this simple. The point of the First Law is that the energy used in doing the work will be equal to the work done, plus the energy lost in the process. The amount of energy input to the amount output is the basis of any formula for what we define as "Efficiency" of a given process or device. This is the First Law, and I find it very easy to understand.
The Second Law becomes a bit more complex, but not with proper explanation. I will endeavor therefore to do my best. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that:
II: Heat will always move from a warmer place to a cooler one.
(Heat will move from a warmer place to a cooler one of it’s own accord, but to move from a cooler place to a warmer one requires more heat (and energy).)
To explain this I will try to use and example. Assume there are two adjoining rooms; One is full of windows and has little insulation. The Sun is bright and hot outside and this room is quite warm from the heat. The adjoining room is well insulated and has no windows. It is cool inside and the door between the two rooms is closed. Now when the door is opened, the warm air from the sunny room will automatically start to move into the cool room. In this process, it is true that some of the cool air will move into the warm room, but this does not defy the Second Law. The force and work is being made by the warm air. The cool air is just responding and will cool the warm room slightly. If the door is left open the two rooms will eventually become the same temperature. If the heat from the Sun continues to warm the sunny room, then eventually both rooms will be the same temperature.
To make the preceeding example, and the concept of the Second Law clearer, I suppose some additional explanation is in order. For that I will introduce the idea of Absolute Zero. This term refers to temperature also. It is called absolute because it is a theoretical point where all molecular motion stops. Absolute Zero is said to be –459.67 degrees Fahrenheit or –273.16 degrees Celsius. Heat is also related to motion and movement. The very electrons and particles of the atoms are in motion as well, and they require heat to move. This is kind of a difficult concept to grasp at first, but even a block of ice has some heat. Mind you, this idea of Absolute Zero is only theoretical. No one has ever achieved a temperature where the components of the atoms themselves cease to move. They claim to have come close, but who knows? The idea of Absolute Zero is important though, for it applies to the idea behind the Second Law as well as the Third.
In relation to the Second law, Heat always moves from a warmer place to a cooler one. This is what is working when your refrigerator is working properly. Energy is being used to compress a gas, Freon. An electric motor drives a pump that compresses the gas and makes it cold. It circulates through the parts of your refrigerator/freezer until it becomes warm and needs to be compressed again. If you ever pull your refrigerator out away from the wall you can usually see to radiation coils where the warm freon gas is passed through to release it’s heat. This is a complicated process I am not entirely understanding of, but it is an example of how heat is applied to remove heat. Since I don’t really know how to explain other than the mechanical process, I will leave it for those who can.
Another example I do understand is that of your stove or oven. We turn on the stove in order to cook something. We thus want to take the electrical energy and convert it back into heat. The pot of soup on the stove is cool. We want to make it hot by turning on the stove and putting some energy into it. This is easy. We run raw current through a heating element and it gets hot. It heats the pot, then it begins to heat the soup. We can easily experience by just standing there while it is cooking, the First Law in action. We feel the heat of the stove and the pot. Heat that is being wasted as it is being lost into the surrounding air and not into the soup we are trying to heat up. An example I saw once stated that if we were in a room of 68 degrees Fahrenheit, 20 Celsius; if it were not for the Second Law we could easily use the heat of the room to bring the soup quickly to a boil. If we had a device to take the heat out of the room and focus it into that pot of soup, we could not only heat it to boiling right quick – we could burn it to a crisp! It is that Second Law that says we can’t do that though.
Heat will flow freely from a warmer place to a cooler one without even being forced, but it will never move from a cooler place to a warmer one without more energy applied. I don’t know if that explains or not. I understand it, but maybe it still seems confusing.
Anyway, at this point we can begin to grasp possibly the idea of the Fourth Law. The scientists put it as Law 0 and I don’t know why. They say it is a law before the First Law so they gave it number 0 as the First Law was well established. The Fourth Law, (or 0 Law,) is:
0: No heat flows between two bodies that are the same temperature.
{To me this simply restates what is said in the first two laws but for some reason they think it is another.}
I guess they considered this important more for the implications than anything else. For in this law it is seen that there must be DIFFERENCE. If there is no difference there is no motion. If the paper is the same temperature as the match then it cannot be lit. Sounds ridiculous I know, as if the paper at the same temperature as the match it is already on fire! But also consider a simple experiment: Boiling water in a paper cup! A paper cup of water can be placed above a burner and the water within will begin to boil before the cup will burn. Edges and sides not touched by the water within will char and burn, but the cup itself will not burn until the water has boiled and evaporated away. An amazing thing to witness, but a proof it remains of these thermodynamic laws.
So to the third Law of Thermodynamics. This is a strange one as it predicts the death of all Creation and the Universe itself. It has been written in many ways I have seen. This law is about Absolute Zero. It is the stating of the assumed fact that the Universe is a closed system. By closed meaning that the original energy that created it is lost within the Creation, and that no additional energy has been or will be added. Scientifically or Religiously, the Third Law is based upon a dead GOD.
III: All motion will cease and all things will die when all the heat of the Universe has been wasted into Space.
Simply put: If no more energy is being put into the system, then it will one day collapse. If the other two laws are true, then one day all the fire and heat and energy will be wasted. Every match we light, every cigarette burned, every fire that releases it’s heat into the air is a waste. We eat what we cook, but when we burn too much we reduce that body to ash that has no more potential – no more can it be burned, - no more fire does it possess. As human beings we waste our precious fire. (once it was said Fire was a gift from the Gods.) Where do we waste it? Gunpowder? Bombs? Bullets? Rockets? When fire is lost into space it is LOST and there is no reclaiming it! We should be more careful.
Truth though, if the Third Law is correct, someday we shall run out of fire. The more we waste it the more we raise the temperature of the Universe. And since, if the Laws are true, there is only so much heat this whole Creation started with, we should be more conscientious of where we spend it. For when we have spent it all and there is no more fire left in the Universe, then we shall be lost. The atoms themselves! All that makes our reality alive and moving and what it is will cease to move. This is called ENTROPY. When we have wasted all the energy as heat that the Universe requires to exist, then it will all stop. She will go back to sleep having no more to give.
Until some power comes willing to risk it again, to give his life and his energy and dissolve himself into this reality and what it could be, she will die and all left here shall die along with her.
Of course, if this is not a closed system, if this reality still has some power source from outside our Universe that has us plugged in still then we need not worry about entropy. All we need to worry about then is how long they will keep us plugged in.
So also the basic three laws can be summed up as in the following:
1. We cannot win.
2. We are bound to lose.
3. We cannot get out of the game.