Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utastro.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!mcnc!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hao!seismo!ut-sally!utastro!ethan From: ethan@utastro.UUCP (Ethan Vishniac) Newsgroups: net.origins Subject: thermodynamics (yet again!) Message-ID: <479@utastro.UUCP> Date: Tue, 4-Sep-84 11:18:17 EDT Article-I.D.: utastro.479 Posted: Tue Sep 4 11:18:17 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 25-Sep-84 00:45:31 EDT Distribution: net Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas Lines: 33 Warning - This article suffers from quote-in-mouth syndrome >>>What kind of evidence should one expect to find from such a model? The >>>Laws of Thermodynamics are an obvious conclusion, and fit well within >>>the model. >>I'm just a country boy... what aspects of the law of Thermodynamics >>does creationism fit that is not adequately covered by more traditional >>explanations? >The transition from order to disorder. Life requires/is characterized by >order. Sigh... This is not a response. Thermodynamics does *not* forbid a local decrease in entropy (or an increase in order - yes I know the two are not precisely equivalent). It does set conditions on when this is to be expected. The surface of the Earth provides an environment in which this is possible. Most life survives by taking sunlight (color temperature ~6000 K) and degrading to photons with a typical energy corresponding to a temperature of ~300 K). This waste is disposed of into interstellar space (which has a *very* low energy content). Were the sun to cease to exist, or were the interstellar medium to be in thermodynamic equilibrium with the surface of the Earth, life as we know it would be impossible. From a thermodynamic point of view, the maintenance of life is not very different from its origin. Both involve lowering the entropy in certain places. Neither violates any laws of thermodynamics. "Cute signoffs are for Ethan Vishniac perverts" {charm,ut-sally,ut-ngp,noao}!utastro!ethan Department of Astronomy University of Texas Austin, Texas 78712