Deterministic?

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Jim</i>
<br />Is entropy a force or what?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">For our purposes here (applications to cosmology), it is best to think of entropy as a measure of disorder rather than as a form of heat, and definitely not as a force. But technically, entropy is a form of energy unavailable to do work.

This presumes you are familiar with the physics meanings of force and energy, as opposed to their meanings in everyday, non-physics speech. But the people in the c^2 thread seem to be unfamiliar with the physics concept that kinetic energy is 1/2 mass times velocity squared. Those who don't understand that velocity squared is a form of energy (and can never be a measure of speed) will find it difficult to understand entropy.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">The BB model has not addressed this detail-has it?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">BB simply accepts the 2nd law. -|Tom|-

Why do we need to do force and energy to determine the entrophy of a single atom? Lets say there are two atoms with different kinetic energy levels. Does the low or high energy atom have the most entrophy? And which atom is hotter?

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Jim</i>
<br />Why do we need to do force and energy to determine the entropy of a single atom? Lets say there are two atoms with different kinetic energy levels. Does the low or high energy atom have the most entrophy? And which atom is hotter?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">A single atom in isolation doesn't have heat or entropy for practical purposes. The mean speed of whole atoms or molecules would measure their heat, and their mean dispersion would measure their entropy.

But there are lots of nuances to these concepts. This is not the place for an introductory physics course. I keep several introductory physics texts on my shelves, and an encyclopedia of physics too. I frequently need to refresh on topics I don't use often. If you care about these matters, I recommend you do the same. -|Tom|-

Details like this one are core issues in cosmic models in my opinion and are real in the universe if not the models.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Jim</i>
<br />Details like this one are core issues in cosmic models in my opinion and are real in the universe if not the models.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">And discussing core issues is very much what this board is about. But tutorials on the basic meanings of physics concepts is not. For example, I have no problem debating the merits of idea A vs. idea B. But I do have a problem with teaching the meaning of A and B from scratch when they are standard physics concepts.

We all have holes in our knowledge, and asking for clarification on the occasional such issue is fine. But I don't feel it is appropriate to repeatedly impose on busy professionals for free private tutoring on basic physics concepts that should have been a part of your university education (for which you would have paid tuition), or at least a part of your self-teaching by reading college physics texts. It's okay to raise here questions about things that did not quite make sense when you were first taught them. But this is not a place to expect to get a free education in the basics.

The burden is supposed to be on the student to study and do homework in order to learn. Knowing somebody you can impose upon whenever a question crosses your mind is a poor substitute for getting a book and teaching yourself, and I think it's rude. Do you disagree? -|Tom|-

Yes I do as a matter of fact. You sure have a way of diverting the topic don't you? I'm simply trying to point out that an atom has no entrophy and it is not a clearly stated fact in any books you may have lying around.