Examining the Second Law a little closer
Sep. 27th, 2004 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaOne of the things I've been pondering lately is the second law of thermodynamics, which asserts that entropy will always tend to increase.
I've never thought before to examine the experimental basis on which this law is based. My question is this: if this law is based on observations that have all involved the examination of isolated systems -- gas or liquid in an airtight jar, etc. -- then how do we know for certain that it will always tend to increase in systems that are not isolated? I'm not doubting that it is a tendency for the entropy of a given system to increase, but what I'm curious about is the logical leap from laboratory work to the assertion of a law that applies globally everywhere in the universe. I'm not even sure I doubt that... but I just want to look a little closer.
I've never thought before to examine the experimental basis on which this law is based. My question is this: if this law is based on observations that have all involved the examination of isolated systems -- gas or liquid in an airtight jar, etc. -- then how do we know for certain that it will always tend to increase in systems that are not isolated? I'm not doubting that it is a tendency for the entropy of a given system to increase, but what I'm curious about is the logical leap from laboratory work to the assertion of a law that applies globally everywhere in the universe. I'm not even sure I doubt that... but I just want to look a little closer.
