Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site leadsv.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!cae780!leadsv!morse From: morse@leadsv.UUCP (Terry Morse) Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: 100% Efficiency Message-ID: <550@leadsv.UUCP> Date: Wed, 7-Aug-85 12:42:30 EDT Article-I.D.: leadsv.550 Posted: Wed Aug 7 12:42:30 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 11-Aug-85 03:54:42 EDT References: <3478@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: Lockheed, Sunnyvale CA Lines: 19 In article <3478@decwrl.UUCP>, williams@kirk.DEC writes: > > ... The idea behind the second law is that some of the > energy is always lost to the environment. That is not the idea behind the second law. If you could conceive of a perfectly insulated enclosure with a 100% space heater in it, the second law would still tell you that the process is irreversible. Even though no energy has passed into the environment, entropy has nevertheless been increased. The second law will tell you little about how much "leakage" one may expect out of a system; it will tell you accurately the direction of a process, though. -- Terry Morse (408)743-1487 { seismo!nsc!cae780 } | { sun!sunncal } leadsv!morse