CNP talk on 2nd Law

Outline of talk Nov 9 at 10 am EST at Chapell Natural Philosophy Society Saturday Session.

Questions: 

• Why are certain systems actually irreversible when basic physics is formally reversible?
• Why is there an Arrow of Time?
• Why is Entropy S never decreasing?
• What is Entropy?
• Boltzmann Statistics S = k log W with W number of microstates
• Statistics is not physics. Statistics is something done by Insurance Companies.
• Classical 2nd Law: TdS = Q > 0

Answers from Computational Thermodynamics:

• New 2nd Law: Q = Turbulent Dissipation = Loss > 0
• Turbulent Dissipation: Large scale kinetic energy K transformed to small scale K = Heat Energy E from increasing gradients created by reorganizing convection (instability).
• Irreversible because small scale K cannot be organized to large scale K because of finite precision.
• Competition: Increase Difference vs Decrease Difference.
• dE + W = Q with W = pdV work < 0 in compression 
• dK - W = - Q
• Classical: Q=TdS not needed. Q > 0 and dS > 0 same thing.
• Summary: Finite Precision Computation + Instability
• Applications: Joule experiment. Newtonian cosmology. Life: anabolism vs metabolism.
• Reality = formal laws of physics + finite precision computation = Computational Euler Equations.