"The Second Law recognizes that there is a fundamental dissymmetry in Nature... All around us are aspects of the dissymmetry: hot objects become cool, but cool objects do not spontaneously become hot; a bouncing ball comes to rest, but a stationary ball does not spontaneously begin to bounce. Here is the feature of Nature that both Kelvin and Clausius disentangled from the conservation of energy: although the total quantity of energy must be conserved in any process (which is their revised version of what Carnot had taken to be the conservation of the quantity of caloric), the distribution of that energy changes in an irreversible manner. The Second Law is concerned with the natural direction of change of the distribution of energy, something that is quite independent of its total quantity."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
P. W. Atkins, The Second Law (1984)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thermodynamics
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Thermodynamics
55 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Thermodynamics →
Related Quotes
"If two systems are both in thermal equilibrium with a third system, then they are in thermal equilibrium with each ot…"
"In a closed system (i.e. there is no transfer of matter into or out of the system), the first law states that the cha…"
"When two initially isolated systems are combined into a new system, then the total internal energy of the new system,…"
"When two initially isolated systems in separate but nearby regions of space, each in thermodynamic equilibrium with i…"
"According to the second law, in a reversible heat transfer, an element of heat transferred, \delta Q, is the product …"
"A system's entropy approaches a constant value as its temperature approaches absolute zero."
"Every mathematician knows it is impossible to understand an elementary course in thermodynamics."
"In order to consider in the most general way the principle of the production of motion by heat, it must be considered…"
"Machines which do not receive their motion from heat... can be studied even to their smallest details by the mechanic…"
"Isn’t thermodynamics considered a fine intellectual structure, bequeathed by past decades, whose every subtlety only …"