mollwollfumble said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Physicists give the first law of thermodynamics a makeover
West Virginia University physicists have made a breakthrough on an age-old limitation of the first law of thermodynamics.
Paul Cassak, professor and associate director of the Center for KINETIC Plasma Physics, and graduate research assistant Hasan Barbhuiya, both in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, are studying how energy gets converted in superheated plasmas in space.
more…
Given that the first law of thermodynamics says that heat is work. Does that mean that they are reforming work practices?
The First Law of Thermodymamics:
Heat is work and work is heat
The Second Law of Thermodymamics:
Heat cannot of itself pass from one body to a hotter body
Heat won’t pass from a cooler to a hotter
You can try it if you like but you far better notter
‘Cos the cold in the cooler with get hotter as a ruler
‘Cos the hotter body’s heat will pass to the cooler
Heat is work and work is heat and work is heat and heat is work
Heat will pass by conduction
Heat will pass by convection
Heat will pass by radiation
And that’s a physical law
Heat is work and work’s a curse
And all the heat in the Universe
Is gonna cooool down ‘cos it can’t increase
Then there’ll be no more work and there’ll be perfect peace
Yeah – that’s entropy, man!
Could almost be a song, that :)
From the link:
“For over 100 years, researchers have attempted to expand the first law for common materials not in equilibrium, but such theories only work when the system is nearly there—when the hot and cold water are almost mixed. The theories do not work, for example, in space plasmas, which are far from equilibrium.”
Why does the First Law of Thermodynamics only work when a system is almost in equilibrium?
Is that even true?