Monday, November 3, 2008

Physics and Physical Labor

In a continued effort to enlighten the masses and help people attune themselves to their daily surroundings (and the insanity of my own), I bring you a thought that's weighed heavily on my head. The law cannot be broken.

Every day I try to live my life abiding by the law. We all do. Yet, lately I have desired more earnestly than ever to break the law. It's driven me to the brink of insanity, yet no matter how hard I try, I cannot physically accomplish the task. I have a theory about why this happens (but theories typically don't hold a chance standing up to laws). But it all comes back to the law. And the law is set. It cannot be broken.

Blast these laws of Thermodynamics!

The Second Law says that entropy always increases in a closed system. One of the things engineers generally do is to define the boundaries of a system such that it is closed. That is, they combine the open system and the outside source of energy into a larger, closed, system.

Have I lost you? I'm sorry. Okay, basically, it all has to do with heat, or energy... but it's also been proven to apply to many other aspects of life. Think of it this way, a wall will not spontaneously build itself, but will fall apart. Energy has to be used to create a wall, but it cannot spontaneously create itself. It can, however come crashing down... everything goes from order to disorder. At best, you can break even and nothing will change, but it will never improve.

Another example is a car rolling along a road that has kinetic energy can do work (by carrying or colliding with something, for example); as friction slows it down and its energy is distributed to its surroundings as heat, it loses this ability. The amount of entropy is often thought of as the amount of disorder in a system.

So, in the system that is my home, as I mop my floors, I earnestly desire to break the law. The law is set though, no matter how much energy I expend, eventually it will all be in vain... dirtied and ruined... and I will mop again, all the while contemplating how thermodynamics has ruined my life.

(and if this is all completely incorrect, well...it's not surprising)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am newly and dually inspired. The mental picture compels me to bush my brain as I bush my broom. Insanity can be accomplished along with a clean home. Bravo on your cleverness. Move over Dave!

Anonymous said...

So does the writer of the comment have the latest on the useage of the word "bush" or did the writer intend to use the pinkie finger on the right hand instead of the index finger on the left???

Anonymous said...

I have used the word and the concept of thermodynamics at least twice since I read your blog. Thanks for the mind stretch in that direction.