Physics is not cutting you much of a deal here, is he? If your room were an isolated system, you might be excused from cleaning, but you would also be grounded. An isolated system cannot exchange anything with its surroundings. On the other hand, a closed system can exchange energy, but not matter (matter = anything that has a mass and occupies space), with its surroundings. Your room is what we call an open system, which means that energy, entropy, and even you and your stuff can pass freely from the walls of your room to the rest of the universe. All the disorder in the rest of the universe is to compensate for the little bit of order in your newly immaculate and well-kept room. Sorry to burst your bubble.Īctually, it comes down to basic math. Therefore, you can clean your room, and as long as the entire universe is still headed toward disorder, all is right in the world. Unfortunately for you, the second law of thermodynamics applies to the whole universe, and your room is one small component of a ginormous universe. This person that rudely commented on the state of your belongings will probably be quick to realize that your excuse for not cleaning your room is a poor one (no offense). It's best to be one with Nature, after all.
The next time that someone, anyone for that matter, tells you to clean your room, tell her that you are letting the second law of thermodynamics run its course. Your room naturally tends toward disorder (pretty crazy that we knew that, right?), or room arrangements with greater entropy, and keeping it all tidy and clean takes a lot of work. We can also think of the second law of thermodynamics in terms of organizing your bedroom. Putting the papers back in the right order takes energy. According to the biology teacher and the class, there is only one correct order for the pages to be in, and many more ways for the dropped pieces of paper to land on the ground. The second law of thermodynamics as applied here means that if you accidentally drop your binder, and the rings pop open, all of the pages will be mixed together. The three-ring binder keeps all the pages in the correct order (or it would, if you ever put anything in it). What does it mean that the amount of disorder is increasing? Let’s think about your…biology binder. We'll let you know if the outcome is ever in Life's favor.) (Not to be a Debbie Downer, either, but the universe generally wins these standoffs when all is said and done. Life strives to create ordered structures while the disorder-loving universe rains on his parade as much as possible. Now you know why life comes down to an everlasting standoff between order and disorder. The universe has made her decision, and there is no talking her out of it at this point, there isn't much to do but stay strong and keep going.
As you might imagine, creating order in a universe that is always headed toward greater disorder requires a good deal of energy. You will often see our new friend entropy expressed as the letter S.
The amount of disorder in a system can be quantified, and this measurement is called entropy. The second law of thermodynamics states that the degree of disorder is always increasing in the universe. Don't you feel silly? Why would we discuss the first law of thermodynamics, first? Making sense is overrated. What is this biological standoff we speak of? Only one of the most fundamental laws of physics, referred to as the second law of thermodynamics. You may have figured out that no good standoff, either between biology and physics or you and your folks on Saturday night, can happen without a good amount of energy.
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