Sunday, June 12, 2016

On Week’s Efficiency of Nature and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

It became such a treat that googling ‘How efficient is Nature?’ I stumbled on Dave Week’s Frogtails Y1995 [1] article answering the same question. And he hit the target on its head, as my heart momentarily stopped. His answer was:

“Perhaps nature has the view that with unlimited resources and time it doesn't really matter whether or not the most efficient systems are in place. It only matters that they work once in a while. Even then (remember the dinosaurs), if things do not continue to work as intended, so what!”

I called this Week’s Dictum. And, it dawns on me that Nature has no definition of efficiency [2] and the Laws of Thermodynamics affirm this dictum; Nature’s supply of mass and energy are constant, as guaranteed by the Zeroth and the First Laws. And in cases that these Laws were compromised or momentarily suspended by Nature’s own complexity, the Second Law or Entropy guarantees that with time, these laws would be restored.

However, there is an interesting mystery of how Entropy works; though it would restores constancy of mass and energy, it would not guarantee that final forms of matter would be the same. This is Nature’s trump card: Entropy restores constancy of energy and mass, and, yet creates diversity in the final product. Hence, Entropy is Nature’s creative force by creating new possibilities as different forms of matter through dispersion [3] of mass and energy !

This idea is completely un-palatable and counter-intuitive to most scientists, engineers, and, economists. Man always design and create systems that are efficient. One reason is scarcity of materials and energy supply. But there is insidiously wrong to seek more efficient systems:

Say we have a big man-made heterogeneous system that consists of different types of sub-systems. These sub-systems do not necessary work for or work against each other. But all of them use energy and portion of available materials from Nature. As a particular sub-system becomes more efficient, than the rest, it seeks control to ensure exclusive supply of materials, to perpetuate its existence. With time, this efficient machine will eventually dominate all the sub-systems, and lead to singular-uniform or homogeneous system.

But this efficient system,  man-made homogeneous system, is just a sub-set of Nature’s bigger system. On a bigger scheme of things, man’s system is always smaller than Nature’s. The crisis is Nature’s system is totally different to Man’s. Nature’s way is to create possibilities by dispersing mass and energy, and maintaining balance. While Man’s is concentration to ensure only one possibility: his own. Man’s system, needless to say, results to in-equality.

Such system is systemic to man-made system. And will always fail. Entropy assures that this will fail. But Man is such a proud creature. Always rationalizing his dominion to Nature, he defiled the definition of Entropy as “degree of Dis-order”, pertaining to in-efficiency, rather defines it as the creative force in Nature, guaranteeing diversity and equality.

Hence, Week’s dictum of Efficiency is so rightly tune to Nature. Perhaps, it is Man’s folly not to un-ravel this lie and hide its true meaning.

But not in my case. The next blogs will be focused on the evidences to destroy this lie.

Notes:
[1] See: http://www.frogtails.com/efficiency.html

[2] If one thinks about it, if Nature is a creation of a Universal God, asserting nature’s in-efficiency is religious blasphemy. For now, we will suspend alluding to religion or political views. Technical discussion will be central in this article.
[3] See: http://entropysite.oxy.edu/. Thermodynamic Change in Entropy is NOT measure of Disorder. As of April 2014, 36 Science textbooks have deleted "disorder" from their description of the nature of entropy. “Entropy change is the measure of how more widely a specific quantity of molecular energy is dispersed in a process, whether isothermal gas expansion, gas or liquid mixing, reversible heating and phase change or chemical reactions, as shown by the Gibbs free energy equation/T. Such movement resulted from life-long advocacy of Dr. Frank L. Lambert, Professor Emeritus, Chemistry, of Occidental College, after more than century of misinformation, and, mis-use by writers, joking mathematicians, and, philosophers.

Saturday, May 14, 2016

In Memoriam

SILENCE

Come to think of it,
Silence are un-told words,
Un-heard, yet felt.
Thoughts transmitted,
With-out signal, yet received.
As solid shadows,
Of hidden figures, yet seen.
Silence persists as absence,
Yet holds presence.
Silence,
A pretense,
Yet, makes sense.


In Memory of Geothermal Geochemists


Werner Giggenbach (1937—1997)


Franco D’Amore (1949-1999)


William Anthony John (Tony) Mahon: (1934–2006)


Harold Helgeson (1931-2007)




Alfred H. Truedell (1933- 2014)



Saturday, April 25, 2015

Introduction

I am opening this blog, not as a usual blog, but a research project. In this case, let me site Bill James’s definition of what a research project is:

 “…The key is to find the question.

Once you find a question that is  interesting and compelling, it is actually makes very little difference to the world as a whole if you get  the answer right or wrong;

It makes a difference to your own career whether you get it right or wrong;

It makes a  difference to your pride whether you get it right or wrong;

But if you find an interesting question to research, whether you get the answer right or wrong does not matter at all.

Because if you don’t get it right somebody else will.

Every interesting question becomes a basis for sequential research done a lot by different people.

And the first take on the answer to it is always wrong. So what.

What is critical is to be able to find a question that has an answer, to which you do not know the answer.

If you can find a question which has an objective answer, and you do not know the answer, then you have a research project.” [1]

And the project is about the Geothermal Science, particularly the Science that comes from it.
Geothermal Science, as I see it on the slump.

As more  geothermal plants [2]  and other renewable energy sources are being developed, fewer  Geothermalists   are ready  to replace retiring experts.

This is the concern.

The key Question to answer is whether Geothermal Science has matured enough to meet the demands of the industry?

I am PB, blogger of  the Dead Geothermalists Society, welcoming you to join me on my travel.

References:
[1] http://sabr.org/latest/2013-sabr-analytics-conference-highlights-bill-james
[2] http://domesticfuel.com/2014/12/31/geothermal-energy-outlook-2015/