Right, so I'm confused?

[Arseface]

Right, so I'm confused?

How does entropy work? My basic understanding of it is energy being lost or made useless (how?) OR being destroyed (which is apparantly impossible).

I do know that it means that the universe is finite.

 

[Tsuyu]

Re: Right, so I'm confused?

Well, you could compare it to an ice cube. The ice cube melts away but it isn't "destroyed" because it turns into way. The way I understand it, "entropy" is the concept of how molecules naturally move away from each other over time.

The forces exerted upon one another by the molecules are not of so simple a kind that each molecule can be replaced by a mere point; for many cases occur in which it can be easily seen that we have not merely to consider the distances of the molecules, but also their relative positions. If we take, for example, the melting of ice, there is no doubt that interior forces, exerted by the molecules upon each other, are overcome, and accordingly increase of disgregation takes place; nevertheless the centers of gravity of the molecules are on the average not so far removed from each other in the liquid water as they were in the ice, for the water is the denser of the two. Again, the peculiar behaviour of water in contracting when heated above 0°C., and only beginning to expand when its temperature exceeds 4°, shows that likewise in liquid water, in the neighbourhood of its melting-point, increase of disgregation is not accompanied by increase of the mean distances of its molecules.

 

[Arseface]

Re: Right, so I'm confused?

That's.... really difficult to grasp.

 

[Tsuyu]

Re: Right, so I'm confused?

That's.... really difficult to grasp.

Which is why I let eggheads like Einstein worry about stuff like that! :lol:

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

Re: Right, so I'm confused?

the tendency for molecules to expand and move away from eachother is most easily witnessed and understood through observing the middle-aged and elderly. as time goes on, you will notice the tendency for many to expand as much as twice or three times their original weight.

i hope i helped to clear some of the confusion