What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics? 

I just wanted to say that I really enjoy this thermodynamics special series!

Read some pieces about the 2nd law but didn't quite get it. The video made the 2nd law very understandable. Excellent explanation!

The human body is Not a closed system... Brilliant!

Thanks for a great explanation and inviting presentation! I fully understand the concept now and I actually enjoyed trip!

Thank you very much for explaining with actual experiments. It really helps in understanding these concepts. Thanks again!!!!

Great video. A difficult concept made a little easier to grasp.

Thank you for explaining the second law so well. I have learned alot. Thank you!

Thank You RI for these series. of video I could remember the concept s easily in my exams

one of the best explanations, thanks!!

awesome explaination sis

Thank you I couldn't understand this at all until this

another example of the second law of thermodynamics is.. my marriage

This was sooo helpful!!

"Entropy always increases" is in fact a theorem deduced by Clausius in 1865: Jos Uffink, Bluff your Way in the Second Law of Thermodynamics, p. 37: "Hence we obtain: THE ENTROPY PRINCIPLE (Clausius' version) For every nicht umkehrbar [irreversible] process in an adiabatically isolated system which begins and ends in an equilibrium state, the entropy of the final state is greater than or equal to that of the initial state. For every umkehrbar [reversible] process in an adiabatical system, the entropy of the final state is equal to that of the initial state." Clausius' deduction was based on three postulates: Postulate 1 (implicit): The entropy is a state function. Postulate 2: Clausius' inequality (formula 10 on p. 33 in Uffink's paper) is correct. Postulate 3: Any irreversible process can be closed by a reversible process to become a cycle. All the three postulates are totally unjustified - clever scientists are well aware of that: Uffink, p.39: "A more important objection, it seems to me, is that Clausius bases his conclusion that the entropy increases in a nicht umkehrbar [irreversible] process on the assumption that such a process can be closed by an umkehrbar [reversible] process to become a cycle. This is essential for the definition of the entropy difference between the initial and final states. But the assumption is far from obvious for a system more complex than an ideal gas, or for states far from equilibrium, or for processes other than the simple exchange of heat and work. Thus, the generalisation to all transformations occurring in Nature is somewhat rash."

This made things a lot clearer! Thank you!!

most understandable explain i have ever heard about second law of thermodynamics 👍

Really really well done

This was a very helpful video, thank you!

Great little video.

thanks. you gave me the best explanation

Thank you very much for this candid spread of information upon Entropy

Really, good explanation

as someone who already thoroughly understands the second law of thermodynamics, the only thing I took away from this video is that Dr. Valeska Ting doesn't respect eggs.

Nicely explained...

This was so helpful

Thanks for explaining! Other video tried to do it with tea, and I couldn't understand anything, cream and ice in coffee make much more sense.

This video made me understand

I just wanna say this video helped me understand The Crying of Lot 49.

Well done

I luv this thank u!!!

Could've been emphasized with some more focus on illustrations, but a good first start primer.

The universe’s heat death (3:16) implies that it is a closed system, which therefore implies it is not infinite i.e. there are a finite number of galaxies, stars, atoms and energy in the universe. If any of these things were infinite that would imply an infinite amount of energy exists in the universe which would contradict the hypothesis of the universe’s heat death. Given most physicists accept the universe heat death hypothesis, then they *must* accept the universe is finite, yet this does not seem to be the case - please explain why this contradiction exists and which part of the argument I’ve presented is incorrect.

Would have been interesting to see a visualisation of where the "present day" universe is along the big-bang to heat death timeline (i.e how far 13.772 billion is compared to 10^26 years). Great video (and series).

All systems are open. There is no such thing as a system closed to heat transfer. Insulation slows down heat transfer, but it doesn't stop it. Subsystems can be created that appear to go against the 2nd Law, but ONLY with outside creative input of additional energy to counteract said Law.

Nice and neat. Thanks

The way I learnt this was by the formula that days entropy is the natural log of the boltzman constant multiplied by the number of microstates. Microstate makes way more sense than "disorder".

Thanks a lot

After watching 3 videos I finally understand what the 2nd law of thermodynamics means. Thank you

Entropy is the chaos we generate in this world the more entropy we create, the less energy is left over to do useful work Concept of arrow of time: tells which direction the time is travelling in If a process generates entropy, it will happen spontaneously and will be irreversible if u put in more energy This law is applicable for closed system Humans are not a closed system, are always exchanging heat with our environment. We are always decreasing entropy at the expense of entropy of environment

First time I understood entropy much better

Is this all assuming the universe is a closed system?

I love the way she talks and her smile. I get it pretty well but I'm pretty distracted by her smile and the way she jumps a little with excitement whenever she's about to explain the next part of the concept.

I'am suppose to be playing this game but this on player keeps kicking my ass.

Nice speech ...

Thanks. 🙂

Can I assume then that the Second Law of Thermodynamics would refute the Big Bang Theory of creation?

Nice work. It would be interesting to create a model adding the input of life force to the idea of thermal equilibrium. If you could consider the prospect that life force animates matter and could motivate energy. As in a "hole in space" that influences the closed system, life force may be a contributing factor and it would be interesting to calculate if this was so, and is there a deficit in the energy in the universe compared to the energy that should exist in the Newtonian universe. This idea is not religion but looking for missing energy. You could take this back to the protouniverse that must have existed before the big bang.

Thanks

I understood 100%

My understanding was that a closed system allows energy input and an isolated system does not. So only the latter is relevant. The speaker used the terms interchangeably. Also, I don't know how helpful the word disorder is - entropy has SI units which the speaker didn't introduce or show how entropy is calculated. Of course, there are limits to the scope if a simple introduction like this.

I take no hot comfort in cold predictions but thanks this easily explains why we did not evolve but we’re created sort of like refrigerators!

really good stuff - minor point: i believe 10^26 is a 1 and 26 zeros, rather than 100 and 26 zeros

Is isolated same as closed system ? because in other defenitions of 2nd law says "isolated" instead of closed.

hi i have a question. What do you mean by closed system?

Nice...i want my ice cube back when youvare done with it.....!!

This is so hard to understand

how do autonomous machines keep their entropy low though?

Great video! Though I am wondering if it really is necessary to waste an egg to make the point.

Please can you/anyone describe me the line at 0:22. Thanks in advance.

Correct me if I'm wrong but basically what the 2nd law is is that we're always giving off energy by simply existing like in the form of heat or noise buy that heat or noise energy given off by us will never transform back into us so the entropy is our energy being mixed in with the air around us

Where does gravity get it's energy from to prevent entropy

What about water and oil?

The Final Question (Asimov) addressed the heat-death part :) What about the Poincaré recurrence theorem? Wasn't a paper published a couple of years ago calculating the time scales for the entire universe

Her haircut is an example of entropy - chaos and order in one place. That's what human is... and everything too. From this point of view.

Light photon ∆E=hf energy is continuously cascades down from the Sun forming greater degrees of freedom for statistical entropy forming the Second Law of Thermodynamics. We have the irreversible processes of classical physics, such as heat energy always flowing from hot to cold and friction always changing motion into heat. Forming an arrow of time within each reference frame. The spontaneous absorption and emission of light photon ∆E=hf energy is forming potential energy into the kinetic energy of electrons. Kinetic Eₖ=½mv² energy is the energy of motion of what is actually happening. An uncertain ∆×∆pᵪ≥h/4π probabilistic future is continuously coming into existence with the exchange of photon energy.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, so do our minutes hasten to their end. Each changing place with that which went before, in sequent toil all forwards do contend.

I'm 11 this helped me learn. Not for school just curious

I thought the second law of thermodynamics is that things become more random..'entropy' but she's just explained that if you turn your fridge off, the temperature inside will come into thermal equilibrium with the outside environment... But that wouldn't be random...

what if the disorder is made structureised can we increase the work

3:45 10^26 is a 10 followed by 25 0's, or a 1 followed by 26 0's, not 10 followed by 26 0's. Otherwise, good video!

Well Yes, but this law is not an absolute law in the same sense than the first. The entropy of a closed system can decrease in any limited time, but if you allow enough time it will increase. Also this law is not fondamental in the same sense as the other laws. You can simulate it numerically by pretending on the computer you have a closed container with a number of particles that initially have some energy each. A more accurate way of stating the law, is that in any defined time interval, the chance of the entropy increasing is greater than the entropy increasing. Also if you take it as a fundamental law, it amounts to contradicting the first law. Then you must accept that the energy in the Universe was created by the big bang in a wound up zeroentropical state, but that violates the first law.

I have a problem with things always turning from hot to cold… It just seems like the outside surrounding temperature would be a real indicator as why things turned hot or cold… For example if somebody put an ice cube in their mouth and ice cube is not going to turn cold because of the surrounding body temperature around it. On the flipside of that let’s just say you had a scolding hot cup of coffee but you put it on the planet venus which is much hotter That cup of coffee is not going to get cooler it will get hotter… Can you please explain to help me understand this better?

Misunderstandings in Ideas about Entropy Misunderstandings in Ideas about Entropy Many discrepancies in understanding the problems of life and evolution from the standpoint of physics and physical chemistry are typically associated with misconceptions in understanding entropy [4-7]. The term "entropy" was coined by Rudolf Clausius. Following his model of the world (universe), he stated: "The energy of the world is constant. The entropy of the world tends to the maximum". Later this statement was chosen by J.W. Gibbs as an epigraph to his paper "On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances". These scientists have given this statement in relation to their model of the universe. This model corresponds to a simple isolated system of ideal gas, i.e., an isolated system of ideal gas, in which the energy and volume are constant and only the work of expansion is performed. The entropy of such a system can only increase! It should be noted that when we speak about the ideal model that would correspond to the real universe, it would be necessary to accept the unreal assumption that any form of energy in the real universe will be transformed into thermal energy. Only in this case, and under additional unrealistic assumptions, the real universe "would turn" into the Clausius-Gibbs model of the ideal system. However, science amateurs applied representations of simple systems to systems of other types, in which interactions takes place between particles of different nature (interactions of molecules or other objects of different hierarchies) and to systems which interact with the environment. Some scientists, who are not professionals in the relevant fields of knowledge, did not escape such errors. This led to unimaginable confusion and slowed down the development of science for more than a century. There are thousands of publications in scientific journals and popular literature containing marked misunderstandings. To these were added incorrect ideas on negentropy and on dissipative structures in the living world and the false identification of "the information entropy" with the thermodynamic entropy. On General Physical Principles of Biological Evolution International Journal of Research Studies in Biosciences (IJRSB) Page | 9 The origin of life and its evolution can be easily explained from the standpoint of hierarchical near-equilibrium thermodynamics of complex dynamic systems. This thermodynamics is established on a solid foundation of equilibrium thermodynamics, thermodynamics of R. Clausius, J.W. Gibbs, and other great scientists.

Order from local Chaos very poetic

Nothing complicated than to think about what entrophy really mean ..

Do you mean after 10 to the power 26 years "hypothetically" we won't be able to move our body and machines won't be able to work and UVR won't be able to trigger photosynthesis?

Respect

Is there an equation that goes with it?

When does complexity turns in into disorder? Isn't that subjective dependent on cognition and computation power? Where one person can only see chaos another can see a complex order. That is the problem with our understanding of the second law of thermodynamics. A sytem can be drawing energy from outside its boundary to increase complexity and that is not dependent on only temperature either, isn't that true? Complexity can carry on increasing even after temperature equlibrium.

Cheers

I did not understand how will the universal heat death occur??

I do not follow why the eventual temperature equilibration of the Universe implies no drivers for spontaneous thermodynamic processes. Many reactions have negligible entropy change and so the position of their equilibrium is not affected by temperature, and many reactions have negligible activation energies so don't require significant temperature to go. The decomposition of nitrogen triiodide is still spontaneous if it starts at the same "cold" temperature as its surroundings. The driver is that the final state is more stable than the initial state (even if the decomposition didn't increase entropy).

i really enjoyed this video good stuff! But...regarding the fact that, theoretically, the universe will one day cease to allow any existence of anything because of the equilibrium of heat, however long it may be from now, is a disturbing statement.

CHAOS WILL ALWAYS TRIUMPH OVER ORDER....it is the way of things

Excellent presentation (despite the totally unnecessary and distracting background noises for people with hearing problems, like me -- please remove the noises!). More importantly, the talk mentions eggs being broken but does not mention the HUGE increase in order during the hatching process after the egg has been laid (e.g. egg of a chicken, duck, avocet, turtle, alligator, crocodile, etc. etc.). The changes within the egg include not only construction of enormously complex physiological structures but also production of species-specific forms of spatial intelligence available immediately after hatching. How does all the chemical goo in a new-laid egg get rearranged to provide highly differentiated physiological mechanisms and also control mechanisms for complex behaviours needed after hatching? I think this problem has not been noticed by physicists, biologists, neuroscientists, philosophers ... I wonder whether the presenter has any ideas about this!

As i know that through the history of the universe complexity has always increased. Does it mean that complexity is disorder? Than i am just clueless.

Does entropy solve the riddle of the hen and the egg? Also does entropy apply to cascade effects like the one in closed systems as reactors?

What if the system (the universe) is self organizing towards order and the 2nd law is a short myopic view of creation.

So is this why ghosts are impossible? Given the description of ghosts being “energy” for some unknown reasoning, that energy would not be able generate itself, let alone sustain itself throughout the ages due to entropy? Most people invoke the first law to describe ghosts, but then disregard the second law because “ghosts don’t have to follow the natural laws”, leading to a contradiction in logic, reasoning and the science as we know it.

thermo is hard enough without that piano playing in the background.

In 1:09 if atoms are boxes then what are balls called. what is meant by ordered and disordered here.

3:47 isn't that 10 followed by 25* zeroes?

So how does earth's atmosphere contained?

3:45 10^26 is 1 followed by 26 zeroes and not 10 followed by 26 zeroes :P

Human has a serious misconception about energy. Energy is usually expended by using direct. However, if we use energy indirectly, it can be used without spending zero percent. This way more energy can be generated without wasting energy..

Wanna hear an awesome explanation of Entropy, there's an hour long radio documentary about Entropy on a radio show called "Ideas with Paul Kennedy" and the episode is just called "Entropy" . It's on RU-vid, you'll thank me later .

at the expense of the surrounding environment ? What if the refrigerator ran on solar?

Thermodynamics in the universe break down through entropy but this creates more energy in collapse or explosion generating huge amounts of radiation & altered atoms of gasses that will drift through space until it reunites in another way. This is how systems die & renew, like a series of big bangs. We see dying supernova becoming black holes which will become so dense they too will collapse, atoms change under pressure but are not lost.

So in the beginning the 2nd law of Thermodynamics did not exist?

what is the difference b/w open and closed system. How are they defined and why are they defined that way? P.S. sorry i am dumb lol