What is Entropy?

The conservation of energy law
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Maxwell Was a Genius!
The Entropy law
Entropy and the Quantum Theory
Gravimotion's point of view




On this side of the page is Physics' Teaching on Entropy


On this side is Gravimotion's (an altenative to physics) point of view about Entropy

In physics heat is a degraded form of energy

   Because heat always flows from hot bodies to cold and never revert from cold to hot, Sadi Carnot in 1824 declared that a loss of temperature or the transfer of heat is a degradation of energy.
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Incomplete not to say biased description

   Physics' alleged degradation of energy is defined as a transfer of heat from hot to cold body.
   Should one consider the cold body rather than the hot, one could argue that a transfer of heat, which always increases the temperature of the cold body is an upgrade of energy rather than a degradation!
   So the fundamental phenomenon behind a transfer of heat is not a degradation. During heat transfer actually two things occur simultaneously: one side looses temperature, as emphasized in physics, while the other gains as much temperature.

Introducing the equalization phenomenon

   A comprehensive or more balanced analysis consists in considering both occurences of descrease and increase of temperatures and to state that an equalization rather than a degradation occurs.
   The equalization phenomenon is part of the GRAVIMOTION theory, presented in the book referenced in the above header.
   Another phenomenon that can be classified as an equalization is the diffusion of odors.

What is the logic behind physics' concept of degradation?

   Segregating heat as done in physics infers that "heat" is a degraded form of energy with respect to "motion".
   But that cannot be because a transfer of motion, that occurs under contact through a push or a collision, always produces a lower speed than the speed of the oncoming motion. So a gain/loss of motion is as much a degradation of energy as a gain/loss of temperature is.
   And the argument of Sadi Carnot is not a good one! This writer thinks (maybe wrongly) that heat is segregated in physics because motion can be 100% transformed into heat, whereas heat never yields 100% motion in an engine. There is always a loss of heat (heat leaks) when transforming heat into motion.

Introduction to the concept of Entropy


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The entropy concept dates back couple hundred years.

   A few years after Sadi Carnot declaration, and based on his idea of energy degradation, Rudolph Clausius invented the concept of entropy.

So, what is entropy?

   Rudolph Clausius stated that the entropy of a system increases while its energy degrades.
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Even though imaginary the entropy concept is highly valued

   Amazingly while "degradation" of energy is a fuzzy concept (see above paragraph "Incomplete not to say biased description"), that degradation becomes a respectable intellectual entity, when mentally transformed into its converse that is entropy (see box on the left)!
   Entropy is the converse because it increases, when the energy degrades.
   Entropy is a fortuitous idea in the sense that it originated in a human mind as the converse of a fuzzy idea.

Heat, motion and diffusion of odors are all compounded phenomenon

   Heat and its transfer, motion and its transfer, diffusion of odors all involving at least two distinct phenomenon that are cold and hot, slow and fast, or two separate situations that are dense and poor in contents, are compounded phenomenon.
   A compounded phenomenon is the effect of a specific cause which here amounts to the juxtaposition of identical phenomenon or situations dissimilar in intensity.
   The entropy concept, based on heat transfer, should by way of consequences not be thought as a fundamental tenet but as a mental abstraction of an effect that occurs in reality.

Uncovering an irreversible path

   The concept of entropy derived out of the compounded phenomenon of transfer of temperature, is an effect and cannot in reverse be used to explain its own cause! It implies specifically that entropy cannot be used to "explain" the phenomenon of temperature transfer, let alone the physical phenomenon of temperature.

   

This page SUMMARY:

   Entropy is a concept that is an idea (that exists in our minds only) and not a physical phenomenon (that would exist in reality).
   At the origin of this abstract concept of entropy is a compounded phenomenon.
   Entropy is highly abstract or remote from reality for two reasons:
  • First entropy is unexpectedly based on a degradation of energy while its peer in reality is a transfer of temperature.
  • Then entropy is the converse in our minds of that real phenomenon, of the transfer of temperature; the mental converse of a real phenomenon is not reality!
   Most importantly, because the entropy concept rests on a compounded phenomenon it coincides to an effect and cannot be used backward to explain its own cause (a difference of temperature), let alone to explain the details of the primary cause (temperature) behind that difference of temperature.
   In spite of this handicap, of being a mental image of an effect useless as to explain its own cause, and as shown in the next few pages, entropy is at the base of the quantum theory, which pretends to provide details of the behavior of sub-atomic particles!
   But first, next page, let us encounter Maxwell who might well be the greatest of all physicists...
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