A glass half full

Vogelzang · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 03, 2008 Posts: 110

A glass half full
A pessimist may see a half a glass of water as half empty and an optimist may see a half a glass of water as half full. When I took P. Chem. I remember that most people taking it just learn how to do the word problems without really understanding it. Later on, I started thinking about these things in a philosophical way. Entropy is a confusing concept. Its often looked at as a measure of disorder (increasing disorder). There is no absolute entropy level or reference point that you can compare other entropy levels to. You can only measure changes in entropy. I remember when my P. Chem. teacher mixed some chemicals in class, went around the room and let us touch the beaker to feel the cold produced by the reaction. This was supposed to demonstrate that not all spontaneous reactions are exothermic. This reaction was endothermic. So what made the reaction go? After some explanation and writing some equations on the board we discovered that it was Gibbs free energy (calculated from entropy, temperature in degrees Kelvin and enthalpy (change in heat)) that made it work. Chemical potential is Gibbs free energy per mole, useful to a chemist to find which way a reaction is going to go and where the equilibrium point is.

OK, entropy always increases in spontaneous (naturally occuring) reactions. Every process contributes to the increase in the entropy level of the universe. If entropy is decreased in one system, this can only be done by increasing the entropy in another system with a net effect of contributing to an increase in entropy of the universe. It was theorized that one day the entire universe would even out completely because of this and would enter a condition known as heat death where no more processes were possible. It would be the end of the universe. This is also based on the belief that our universe is finite and all matter and energy in it came from the Big Bang explosion that created our universe.

This may seem like a depressing idea, but if you consider the fact that without entropy no processes can occur then it is essential that there is entropy for us to be here. If it wasn't for entropy, you wouldn't be here.

I thought of this years ago. Recently, I thought of the idea that if it wasn't for the drive to reproduce we wouldn't be here. Many people are even conceived and born by accident. If you follow what economists and investors say in the media, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, etc. you can see they accept the boom and bust cycles of the economy. They often refer to a significant drop in the indices as a correction as if it was needed to shake out the excesses in the market. They talk about the greed and fear in the market and how it shifts over time. They are familiar with Malthusian principles, but no one knows for sure what's going to happen in the future.

link and link and link

Vogelzang · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 03, 2008 Posts: 110

One possibility discussed by cosmologists is that we live in an oscillating universe, ie. our universe will stop expanding one day and start contracting until everything ends up back together again, a singularity, massive black hole or what? And then the whole process starts over again.

Concerned · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Sep 23, 2004 Posts: 1550

Of course in real life the glass is BOTH half full and half empty at the same time.
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jlw61 · Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:58 pm Post subject: Re: A glass half full

Heineken · Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:07 pm Post subject: Re: A glass half full

Of course, the true situation is that the glass is no longer half full and half empty. It's less than half full. Probably much less than half full. Now optimists can proclaim, "Hey, the glass is a tenth full! Look on the bright side!"
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MathMurderer · Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:22 pm Post subject: Re: A glass half full

Not only is the glass 40% full and 60% empty (numbers invented Wink

), the glass is also 2.5 times as large as it should be...
So if the remaining content of the glass is the amount of energy left, the empty space is the energy already consumed and the glass itself is the world population, finding a smaller glass would be advantageous.
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Concerned · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Sep 23, 2004 Posts: 1550

mos6507 · Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:25 pm Post subject: Re: A glass half full

Vogelzang · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 03, 2008 Posts: 110

For the open minded see link. Einstein and all of his followers are charlatans.

Ludi · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:09 pm Post subject: Re: A glass half full

Homesteader · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:29 pm Post subject: Re: A glass half full

Vogelzang · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 03, 2008 Posts: 110

See: link1 and link2 and link3

GASMON · Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:42 am Post subject: Re: A glass half full

An electron, a proton, and neutron walk into a bar and order a couple of drinks. They finish their drinks and the bartender as them to pay their tab. He says to the electron "you owe me 10," to the proton "15" and he says to the neutron "for you no charge."

Gasmon
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eXpat · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jun 08, 2006 Posts: 1044