Re:Scientists report fundamental asymmetry between heating a...
by VMG on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @05:46AM
(#39101765)
Is that true though? If I have say a box with mixed red and blue bricks and I sort them by color, both sides are "clean" now.
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Re:Scientists report fundamental asymmetry between heating a...
by alpaca128 on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @07:54AM
(#39102724)
Red bricks won't magically disappear by sorting, just like dirt won't disappear when you wipe it off a surface.
Re:Scientists report fundamental asymmetry between heating a...
by ben_w on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @05:59AM
(#39101835)
In a sense that misses the metaphor, sure.
But the thing which is "dirtier" is the wider universe, where the energy you used to do that sorting has higher entropy.
At the scale of atoms and molecules in a gas, you can also sort them into high-energy particles on one side of a barrier and low-energy particles on the other side, and now there's a heat difference you can run a heat engine. This is totally a thing you can do with the right devices — but those devices will necessarily consume more energy than you get from a heat engine running on that heat difference.
Re:Scientists report fundamental asymmetry between heating a...
by jackhalford on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @06:02AM
(#39101850)
That’s because the box isn’t a closed system, you’ve interacted with in and you have spent energy sorting the bricks. It’s the same story with humans on earth, things get sorted because of the energy inout from the Sun.
Re:Scientists report fundamental asymmetry between heating a...
by jacquesm on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @06:29AM
(#39102029)
You've just marginally warmed up everything else including yourself.
Re:Scientists report fundamental asymmetry between heating a...
by Etheryte on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @05:52AM
(#39101796)
Sorting something is not the same as cleaning it, just like sorting an array doesn't sanitize its contents.
Re:Scientists report fundamental asymmetry between heating a...
by arkey on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @08:57AM
(#39103318)
Cleaning is usually relocating dirt.
If either red or blue were dirt, one of the sides is dirty, and the other is clean.
If neither red or blue were dirt, then nothing was dirty, it was just mixed up.
Re:Scientists report fundamental asymmetry between heating a...
by x86_64Ubuntu on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @10:27AM
(#39104635)
You've left out the entropy you've added to the universe by ordering the system. That entropy is in the form of wasted heat.