California has been going through some massive heat waves and suffering constant blackouts. You can monitor in realtime how close California gets to maxxing out their power supply. They need to get Mayor Daley over there and kick some Electricity Company butt.
Question: question 12 in “Thinking Physics” – page 259
Inside a warm damp cave completely sealed off from the outside world could life flourish indefinitely?
Answer: No life forms could flourish indefinitely. In an isolated system, entropy always increases. Life tries to push entropy in the opposite direction. When life is created, entropy decreases in the cave but nature demands a greater entropy increase offset. The cave, being sealed, would mean that entropy would reach its max, thus energy necessary to sustain and generate new life would be unavailable. Maybe we should learn a lesson from this. Available energy is mandatory. Wealth may equate to available energy. If you want to live in a nation that is prospering make sure that its available energy supply is abundant.
Entropy is one of "Physics Foibles"
Posted by: Melvin Goldstein on Mar 04, 09 | 7:52 pm
