Statements fo the Second Law

• Many equivalent forms – Lightman p. 101

• In an ISOLATED system:

  • The system naturally evolves toward more probable configurations
  • The system evolves toward distributing its total energy equally among all its parts (conserving energy of course)
  • Heat flows from hotter to colder bodies
  • The system evolves toward decreasing order
  • The system evolves toward increasing entropy
  • The system’s ability to covert work into heat is always diminishing

• Conclusions:
  • The universe is winding down – heading toward “thermal death”
  • The universe had a beginning
  • The direction of time is determined by this inevitable, irreversible tendency

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