Thursday, February 26, 2009

Thermo is cooler than it is scary.


The problems that we see in the thermodynamics class ,just like physics, are all based on a couple of laws (equations). Everything we do for homework is based on manipulations of those few equations. We just got into the second law of thermodynamics which, to me, is like the first law of cynicism. Not really, but it does give an equation that defines the absolute most efficiency that is possible. How depressing. Truthfully, even that is practically unattainable. This guy Carnot was the first person to put this idea together, and so now we know we'll never have the perfect engine. Bummer. In the lamest of layman's terms, if the hottest you can get is the melting temperature of the material out of which you build your engine, and the coldest you can get is just a few degrees below 273 Kelvin, then you'll never get 100% out of your engine. Oh yeah, you'd also have to eliminate friction and a host of other impossible things. On the other hand, this all implies you have some moving parts. What if you had no moving parts...

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