Physicist: So, class, there we have it. That’s the Second Law that we have studied for the past two weeks. In sum—and this is the most important fact to remember for the upcoming test—a hotter object loses its heat to the colder environment in which it sits. Your Starbucks cafe mocha can’t absorb heat from the winter air through which you carry it; it heats that air instead. Thus, you need a cardboard sleeve to protect your 98.6 degree hand from the hot-to-the-touch cup that holds a liquid at 158 degrees Fahrenheit. That, my young charges, is the Second Law of Thermodynamics in action. The flame from the stove’s burner transfers its heat to the bottom of the pot, and the pot transfers its heat to the colder food, and the food eventually transfers its heat to the environment, including to you, and then you transfer the heat through infrared radiation to the air through which you walk or the seat on which you sit. It’s an experiment everyone has run at one time or another. Heat runs to cold. Hotter objects cool. In fact, the entire universe will someday grow cold just as it has grown progressively colder from the Big Bang, reaching 2.7 Kelvins from its original impossible to imagine 10^32 Kelvin. Think of the Cosmos as the ultimate Venti cup, the cup of everything that has molecules and atoms moving about. Always keep in mind that temperature is a measurement of motion, the motion of atoms. Faster movement equals hotter temperatures. Atoms collide and transfer energy. Heat dissipates to the environment. Earth loses energy to space.
Student: But that’s not what the Democrats in New York and California believe. Berkeley, California, wants people to cook with cold. New York has said “no” to gas stoves, also. * And we all know that Democrats want to save the planet, so banning gas hookups in Berkeley and gas stoves in future New York buildings is the right way to go. Democrats follow the science. Global warming is real. There’s a consensus. If we don’t do something now, we’re doomed to suffer more fires, more tornadoes, more heat waves, more droughts…
Physicist: But if they follow the science, wouldn’t they understand the Second Law?
Student: No, that might work with a cup of coffee, but we’re talking about the entire Earth warming up and warming up and warming up.
Physicist: Uh! Don’t you think that Earth is also like a big cup of hot coffee that loses its heat to its environment? That loses energy to space?
Student: it will just get warmer. And by banning gas stoves, we will save the planet from getting warmer. All that burned gas just turns into carbon dioxide.
Physicist: And water. So, your “scientific” contention is that we’re destined to boil?
Student: Al Gore already said the oceans are boiling. And he knows the science.
Physicist: Has big Al ever had a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup?
Student: You can make fun, but my parents are already thinking about getting rid of their gas stove and gas furnace.
Physicist: But how will you cook and heat? How will you make New York pizza? Surely, you don’t want to eat unbaked dough. You live in New York. Certainly, you’re old enough to know winter temperatures. Certainly, you’ve heard in your earth science class that New York is sitting on shale gas of enormous economic and energy potential. And surely, you’ve heard that New York’s last governor has banned fracking for that gas, eliminating the Marcellus and Utica reserves from use and eliminating jobs and wealth from the New York economy—not to mention the loss of inexpensive energy.
Student: We’ll use electricity.
Physicist: That is produced how?
Student: Not by burning fossil fuels. Maybe by wind. See, there’s no energy transfer in windmills. No Second Law.
Physicist: Really? Where does the energy to turn the windmill come from? It comes from solar heating of the planet’s surface that, in turn, heats the air, that, in turn rises in convection cells that, in turn, causes lower pressure in one location than in another that, in turn, causes advection that, in turn turns the blades that, in turn, need lubricants to prevent them from the destructive heat of friction as they turn and kill passing birds.
Student: But there’s no fire and no carbon dioxide. There’s no need for fracking that destroys the groundwater. No need for pipelines and their right-of-ways.
Physicist: And if the wind doesn’t blow on a particular day?
Student: That’s what batteries are for. There’s no need for the Second Law in public energy. Or we could use Niagara Falls and all those other waterfalls cut through the shales and sandstones of New York, Watkins Glen, for example, maybe Taughannock Falls, too.
Physicist: So, your parents are converting to electric cooking to save the planet?
Student: Yes. They know the science. They know about global warming. They voted for Democrats in every election because Democrats know and follow science.
Physicist: But of necessity, Earth has to radiate heat to space, and that has been measured in Watts. We have a pretty good idea of the “current” solar constant in Watts, and we know that if the atmosphere warms, so the number of Watts bleeding off the planet will increase. A warmer atmosphere will increase the Watts that bleed to space.
Student: Sorry. I’m following the science. It’s your generation that wants to destroy the planet just because you want to cook your food.
Physicist: So, cold coffee is the way to go? Just throw some coffee beans into some water and wait. Maybe make “sun tea”? Uncooked food is the way to eat? It took primates almost all of their collective existence of millions of years to discover fire and cooked food, and you want us to abandon that trophic technology?
Student: I can eat cold pizza.
Physicist: Get used to it.
*https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/03/us/new-york-natural-gas-ban-climate/index.html
Student: But that’s not what the Democrats in New York and California believe. Berkeley, California, wants people to cook with cold. New York has said “no” to gas stoves, also. * And we all know that Democrats want to save the planet, so banning gas hookups in Berkeley and gas stoves in future New York buildings is the right way to go. Democrats follow the science. Global warming is real. There’s a consensus. If we don’t do something now, we’re doomed to suffer more fires, more tornadoes, more heat waves, more droughts…
Physicist: But if they follow the science, wouldn’t they understand the Second Law?
Student: No, that might work with a cup of coffee, but we’re talking about the entire Earth warming up and warming up and warming up.
Physicist: Uh! Don’t you think that Earth is also like a big cup of hot coffee that loses its heat to its environment? That loses energy to space?
Student: it will just get warmer. And by banning gas stoves, we will save the planet from getting warmer. All that burned gas just turns into carbon dioxide.
Physicist: And water. So, your “scientific” contention is that we’re destined to boil?
Student: Al Gore already said the oceans are boiling. And he knows the science.
Physicist: Has big Al ever had a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup?
Student: You can make fun, but my parents are already thinking about getting rid of their gas stove and gas furnace.
Physicist: But how will you cook and heat? How will you make New York pizza? Surely, you don’t want to eat unbaked dough. You live in New York. Certainly, you’re old enough to know winter temperatures. Certainly, you’ve heard in your earth science class that New York is sitting on shale gas of enormous economic and energy potential. And surely, you’ve heard that New York’s last governor has banned fracking for that gas, eliminating the Marcellus and Utica reserves from use and eliminating jobs and wealth from the New York economy—not to mention the loss of inexpensive energy.
Student: We’ll use electricity.
Physicist: That is produced how?
Student: Not by burning fossil fuels. Maybe by wind. See, there’s no energy transfer in windmills. No Second Law.
Physicist: Really? Where does the energy to turn the windmill come from? It comes from solar heating of the planet’s surface that, in turn, heats the air, that, in turn rises in convection cells that, in turn, causes lower pressure in one location than in another that, in turn, causes advection that, in turn turns the blades that, in turn, need lubricants to prevent them from the destructive heat of friction as they turn and kill passing birds.
Student: But there’s no fire and no carbon dioxide. There’s no need for fracking that destroys the groundwater. No need for pipelines and their right-of-ways.
Physicist: And if the wind doesn’t blow on a particular day?
Student: That’s what batteries are for. There’s no need for the Second Law in public energy. Or we could use Niagara Falls and all those other waterfalls cut through the shales and sandstones of New York, Watkins Glen, for example, maybe Taughannock Falls, too.
Physicist: So, your parents are converting to electric cooking to save the planet?
Student: Yes. They know the science. They know about global warming. They voted for Democrats in every election because Democrats know and follow science.
Physicist: But of necessity, Earth has to radiate heat to space, and that has been measured in Watts. We have a pretty good idea of the “current” solar constant in Watts, and we know that if the atmosphere warms, so the number of Watts bleeding off the planet will increase. A warmer atmosphere will increase the Watts that bleed to space.
Student: Sorry. I’m following the science. It’s your generation that wants to destroy the planet just because you want to cook your food.
Physicist: So, cold coffee is the way to go? Just throw some coffee beans into some water and wait. Maybe make “sun tea”? Uncooked food is the way to eat? It took primates almost all of their collective existence of millions of years to discover fire and cooked food, and you want us to abandon that trophic technology?
Student: I can eat cold pizza.
Physicist: Get used to it.
*https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/03/us/new-york-natural-gas-ban-climate/index.html
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