This is NOT your practice life!

How To Face Daily Challenges and Harsh Realities To Find Inner Peace through Mental Mapping
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Test

Second Law of Thermodynamics

5/5/2023

0 Comments

 
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
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    Categories

    All
    000 Years Ago
    11:30 A.M.
    130
    19
    3d
    A Life Affluent
    All Joy Turneth To Sorrow
    Aluminum
    Amblyopia
    And Minarets
    And Then Philippa Spoke Up
    Area 51 V. Photo 51
    Area Of Influence
    Are You Listening?
    As Carmen Sings
    As Useless As Yesterday's Newspaper
    As You Map Today
    A Treasure Of Great Price
    A Vice In Her Goodness
    Bananas
    Before You Sling Dirt
    Blue Photons Do The Job
    Bottom Of The Ninth
    Bouncing
    Brackets Of Life
    But
    But Uncreative
    Ca)2Al4Si14O36·15H2O: When The Fortress Walls Are The Enemy
    Can You Pick Up A Cast Die?
    Cartography Of Control
    Charge Of The Light Brigade
    Cloister Earth
    Compasses
    Crater Lake
    Crystalline Vs Amorphous
    Crystal Unclear
    Density
    Dido As Diode
    Disappointment
    Does Place Exert An Emotional Force?
    Do Fish Fear Fire?
    Don't Go Up There
    Double-take
    Down By A Run
    Dust
    Endless Is The Good
    Epic Fail
    Eros And Canon In D Headbanger
    Euclid
    Euthyphro Is Alive And Well
    Faethm
    Faith
    Fast Brain
    Fetch
    Fido's Fangs
    Fly Ball
    For Some It’s Morning In Mourning
    For The Skin Of An Elephant
    Fortunately
    Fracking Emotions
    Fractions
    Fused Sentences
    Future Perfect
    Geographic Caricature And Opportunity
    Glacier
    Gold For Salt?
    Great
    Gutsy Or Dumb?
    Here There Be Blogs
    Human Florigen
    If Galileo Were A Psychologist
    If I Were A Child
    I Map
    In Search Of Philosopher's Stones
    In Search Of The Human Ponor
    I Repeat
    Is It Just Me?
    Ithaca Is Yours
    It's All Doom And Gloom
    It's Always A Battle
    It's Always All About You
    It’s A Messy Organization
    It’s A Palliative World
    It Takes A Simple Mindset
    Just Because It's True
    Just For You
    K2
    Keep It Simple
    King For A Day
    Laki
    Life On Mars
    Lines On Canvas
    Little Girl In The Fog
    Living Fossils
    Longshore Transport
    Lost Teeth
    Magma
    Majestic
    Make And Break
    Maslow’s Five And My Three
    Meditation Upon No Red Balloon
    Message In A Throttle
    Meteor Shower
    Minerals
    Mono-anthropism
    Monsters In The Cloud Of Memory
    Moral Indemnity
    More Of The Same
    Movie Award
    Moving Motionless
    (Na2
    Never Despair
    New Year's Eve
    Not Real
    Not Your Cup Of Tea?
    Now What Are You Doing?
    Of Consciousness And Iconoclasts
    Of Earworms And Spicy Foods
    Of Polygons And Circles
    Of Roof Collapses
    Oh
    Omen
    One Click
    Outsiders On The Inside
    Pain Free
    Passion Blew The Gale
    Perfect Philosophy
    Place
    Points Of Departure
    Politically Correct Tale
    Polylocation
    Pressure Point
    Prison
    Pro Tanto World
    Refresh
    Regret Over Missing An Un-hittable Target
    Relentless
    REPOSTED BLOG: √2
    REPOSTED BLOG: Algebraic Proof You’re Always Right
    REPOSTED BLOG: Are You Diana?
    REPOSTED BLOG: Assimilating Values
    REPOSTED BLOG: Bamboo
    REPOSTED BLOG: Discoverers And Creators
    REPOSTED BLOG: Emotional Relief
    REPOSTED BLOG: Feeling Unappreciated?
    REPOSTED BLOG: Missing Anxiety By A Millimeter Or Infinity
    REPOSTED BLOG: Palimpsest
    REPOSTED BLOG: Picture This
    REPOSTED BLOG: Proximity And Empathy
    Reposted Blog: Sacred Ground
    REPOSTED BLOG: Sedit Qui Timuit Ne Non Succederet
    REPOSTED BLOG: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
    REPOSTED BLOG: Sponges And Brains
    REPOSTED BLOG: The Fiddler In The Pantheon
    REPOSTED BLOG: The Junk Drawer
    REPOSTED BLOG: The Pattern Axiom
    REPOSTED IN LIGHT OF THE RECENT OREGON ATTACK: Special By Virtue Of Being Here
    REPOSTED: Place
    River Or Lake?
    Scales
    Self-driving Miss Daisy
    Seven Centimeters Per Year
    Shouting At The Crossroads
    Sikharas
    Similar Differences And Different Similarities
    Simple Tune
    Slow Mind
    Stages
    Steeples
    Stupas
    “Such Is Life”
    Sutra Addiction
    Swivel Chair
    Take Me To Your Leader
    Tats
    Tautological Redundancy
    Template
    The
    The Baby And The Centenarian
    The Claw Of Arakaou
    The Embodiment Of Place
    The Emperor And The Unwanted Gift
    The Final Frontier
    The Flow
    The Folly Of Presuming Victory
    The Hand Of God
    The Inostensible Source
    The Lions Clawee9b37e566
    Then Eyjafjallajökull
    The Proprioceptive One Survives
    The Qualifier
    The Scapegoat In The Mirror
    The Slowest Waterfall
    The Transformer On Bourbon Street
    The Unsinkable Boat
    The Workable Ponzi Scheme
    They'll Be Fine; Don't Worry
    Through The Unopened Door
    Time
    Toddler
    To Drink Or Not To Drink
    Trust
    Two On
    Two Out
    Umbrella
    Unconformities
    Unknown
    Vector Bundle
    Warning Track Power
    Wattle And Daub
    Waxing And Waning
    Wealth And Dependence
    What Does It Mean?
    What Do You Really Want?
    What Kind Of Character Are You?
    What Microcosm Today?
    What Would Alexander Do7996772102
    Where’s Jacob Henry When You Need Him?
    Where There Is No Geography
    Window
    Wish I Had Taken Guitar Lessons
    Wonderful Things
    Wonders
    Word Pass
    Yes
    You
    You Could
    Your Personal Kiribati

    RSS Feed


Web Hosting by iPage