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Back Icarus

   

"Inspired by the staggering beauty of America's native* wilderness, many early American writers rejected the Baconian view that man held dominion over nature: their subsequent works heralded the birth of the environmental movement."

- The Trustees of Reservations, in: The Ecologist, Journal of the Post Industrial Age, Vol. 11, No. 3, 1981, Page 135

*"Untouched by human hands" - and of pristine WEALTH!



  

Gravity vs.
Wealth vs Work
Thermodynamics




  1. Prologue                                                            
    1. From astrology to astronomy in economics

  2. Main Page

  3. Epilogue

    1. Physical Esoterics
      1. The more it unfolds, the simpler it gets
      2. Where did it all go wrong?
      3. So much for economics
      4. A possible solution?

  4. Just for curiosity: The gravity 'time machine' experiment
    1. The gravity time machine experiment - A detour through a gravity dip saves time
      1. This simple experiment does not prove or disprove anything said on the thermodynamics page.

  5. On second thoughts:
    1. Adding some thought experiment
      1. "Thermodynamics deals with irreversible events - which, according to Newton, should not exist."

  6. Further Reading
  7. Downloads



Prologue to   - Prospect 1850 -


From an economic point of view, the result of human activity is always zero,
as the assets and liabilities split up in the production process
will always cancel each other out; and physically,
the result is a loss.

So where then
is the profit?


The physical basis of ecology and economics is that all living beings, humans, machines, and matter movements on the planet's interactive surface, deplete, according to the laws of thermodynamics at a loss, an energy potential and entropic gradient which is provided for, and then replenished, free of charge and for thermodynamic gain, by the force of gravity.


These processes are sometimes intermixed.

From astrology to astronomy in economics

The Second Law of Thermodynamics
Within certain limits, it is not important that something is correct, but that it is useful.

It does not matter if something is completely understood theoretically (which in theory it can never be), but only that its effect is recognized. That is the only way a monkey can use a stick as a lever, and it is also the only way humans could employ fire without knowing anything about oxidation, and send an arrow into the target without having any idea of theoretical mechanics. To this day, flat, and thereby necessarily incorrect maps are used to navigate a globe, and no- one gets lost when if they are used correctly.

Similarly, humans have been orientating their lives along the course of the stars above for thousands of years; and their cleverest, on all continents, at all times, have endeavored to trace and predict their paths; but naturally, they succeed only within the framework of their theoretical possibilities.

As long as they proceeded from the assumption of a flat, static, asymmetrical world, and divided it into sectors from their point of view (in the Babylonian- Egyptian European region into divisions of 12, 60, and 360), the result was wrong, but employable; in particular, the calculation of the planetary orbits resulted in completely chaotic reproductions from the point of view of the Earth as their theoretical center - although they were quite regular; so regular, in fact, that astronomical phenomena could be predicted, albeit with great difficulty (and so precisely, that unforeseen ones, such as comets and supernovae, were considered harbingers of doom; and quite rightly so, as only the likelihood of catastrophe was unknown).

But it took three theoretical revolutions to send satellite probes onto distant planets. From the subjective, flat (or rather: pyramidical) Earth with a fixed "up" and "down" side (which in the universe does not exist, in stark contrast to right and left), first to a three-dimensional sphere (this, incidentally, was done thousands of years ago with admirable precision; but ecclesiastically, and thus morally and socially accepted only since a few hundred years, and finally so only since a few decades); then the idea of a universe with the Earth in its center needed to become heliocentric (as a result of which, theoretically non-calculable, varyingly erratic planetary orbits, first, became circles, then, with increasing precision, fluctuating ellipses); then, from a heliocentric world view, to one of a universe with a past big bang in its center, thus changing it from space to time- and who knows how many changes are still to come.


It was possible to navigate within each of these world views; but not beyond. And every time a sacral edifice, oriented towards the postulated eternal course of the stars, and thus the society built according to these calculations, went out of focus because of the dynamics of the universe, the respective society dissolved; because its fundamental beliefs, its stability, and thus the justification of its structure were now in question.


And for precisely the same reason, because neither nature or universe revolve around man in any way; just as the human-centered, assumption-based, astrological world view had to become a centerless, observation-based, astronomical world view (in which not even time is constant any more), in order to progress; so the human-centered, assumption-based, economical (actually, ecological) picture of the world must become a centerless, observation-based new economic view of the world; in order to escape the eternal cycle of unforeseeable economic events.

As in astrology, the calculations and accounting (which, in addition to the macroeconomic governmental money systems, include the microeconomic, such as the presentation of taxes and levies, the pension payments and so on) in the current economy are inconsistent, confused, baseless, complicated, inscrutable; even experts do not comprehend it (not because they are stupid, but because it is based on false assumptions); and, above all, foreseealbe only to a very limited extent.


Here now is no less than the attempt, as at that time by Eratosthenes of Cyrene to emerge from a false view of the world.




 Visit the  Main Page




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Epilogue


Physical Esoterics


The more it unfolds, the simpler it gets


Reducing my model to five major points or theses:


Everything in the universe, and with that everything on Earth, as the existence of planet Earth itself, can be traced back to gravity in just a few simple steps.


  1. ALL MATERIALS heavier than hydrogen were and are being forged in the center of stars by nuclear fusion as a consequence of the gravity of these stellar objects.


  2. Each new atom so created is more complex than its predecessor, and is created in an ever shortening span of time. Thus the effect of gravity INCREASES COMPLEXITY, and so, by that definition, REDUCES ENTROPY; it does so on all levels.


  3. ALL FORMS OF ENERGY prevailing, such as heat, light, and movement, on Earth ultimately originate in the Sun, the Moon or the Earth itself as a consequence of the gravity of these stellar objects as well. The same applies for others.


  4. LIFE ON EARTH is but the latest stage of COMPLEXITY in this location in space and at this moment in time. Along with the ENERGY it feeds upon and the MATERIAL that it is composed of, living tissue is, simply put, just another consequence of gravity.


  5. The high- energy, low- entropy conditions brought forth by the self- accumulation and self- organization of matter through its own gravity sparks a THERMODYNAMIC REACTION, of which human economy is a part. The laws governing this process will not allow a profit.




Could it be simpler?



All matter, by its own gravity, constantly increases its own structure, order, grading and complexity, thereby providing the complement, rather the prerequisite, for any thermodynamics. Not the other way around.

This increase in complexity (or reduction of entropy) as the key element presents itself in three, by now parallel, but consecutive stages, each one shorter than the one before, and each one accelerating for itself (a property of all gravitational systems):


  1. Physical: All the known elements are produced over time in the gravitational centers of the stars, by nuclear fusion and under the determining influence of gravity, from the original, most primitive and simplest of all elements, hydrogen, which constitutes them as the only existing material in the beginning of the universe. The number of natural elements known to us is thus advanced from 1 to about 100; in addition to this come the variety of internal atomic structures of the individual elements.

  2. Chemical: These new elements are scattered into space in supernovae and then accumulate again in smaller centers of gravity, such as planets, and, again under the same determining influence of gravity, and over time, but in less than was necessary for their formation, themselves form ever new molecular combinations; the number of new materials now present in the universe already becomes incalculable.

  3. Biological: Under appropriate conditions, some of the increasingly complex molecules acquire the ability to thermodynamically decompose other molecules and excrete the waste, without themselves fundamentally changing, by exploiting the material and energy streams produced by the gravity of the gravitational centers in their proximity. Life begins, and with that evolution or change in ever shorter time. The number of different molecules able of being thus biologically generated is beyond any measure.



So life on Earth (or anywhere in space) is not a frighteningly unlikely coincidence, contradictory to all natural laws of decline and dissolution, but simply a result of 13 billion years of creative physical influence by the gravity of matter upon itself. As well as is every dead planet, and the entire cosmos in its present form.

Everything else is just a statistical probability, not a coincidence - "There are no coincidences". Just as there are no real contradictions - one of the assumptions involved is wrong (Ayn Rand).


In one sentence:


In the course of 13 billion years, the matter of the universe transformed itself, by its own gravity, and over several levels, from a dead cloud of hydrogen gas or plasma partially into living, self- sensitive matter- and that's just the last step in this place at that time.


---------

Is that important?


The planet does not care why it is. People do, and that has consequences.

Until the invention of the steam engine, all humanity was of the opinion of being created or descended from a god or several supernatural gods - supernatural because, logically, man was not able to create man and certainly not the rest of the world, from which man depends upon in prosperity and ruin.

This view has lost its value in the industrialized world, the more people were capable of mastering nature. Man, ideologically, was transformed more and more from creature to creator, now even of his own self; that too has consequences.

Industrialization has already allowed two world wars, in which humans were pit against their own mechanical creations. Anecdotally, the machines won and as a result are now taking over the world.

The theoretical penetration of thermodynamics 150 years ago had a share not to be underestimated in this new image of man as creator - which on the one hand allowed humans to become more and more powerful, on the other hand, however, depicted their existence, together with that of their planet which they were now controlling, as an inexplicable, accidental and incalculable whim of nature, in a cosmos that was becoming less and less logical; the more science advanced, the more the result became ever more esoteric, contradictory and confusing.

What now if the theory contains an error? Then all that changes. If the assumed theoretical flaw is sufficiently basic and primary, if it for example is based on a mathematically or physically unfounded and sufficiently false definition of entropy, then man, at least according to this description, returns from creator to creature again.


And that has consequences as well.

"Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong." - Ayn Rand


tl; dr:

S =/= Q/T
S   =   T/Q


My pleasure!

  

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Comments on point:



1: This is undisputed, as far as I know.



2: Highly controversial. Science is divided on how to exactly define entropy, depending on its purpose.

For the sake of the arguments provided here, (low) entropy will be defined as a measure of complexity, gradient, and potential; the nuclear transformation of hydrogen to helium alone then is proof of the entropy- lowering effect of gravity, as would be the reduction and separation of carbon and hydrogen oxide (or mineral water) to carbohydrates and free oxygen via photosynthesis (effective of the gravity of the Sun), or similar processes via chemosynthesis (effective of the gravity of the Earth).


3: My thesis; the general opinion of science on this is unknown to me.

It seems almost to not have been looked for very seriously yet. Usually, the debate stops short at "the Sun" as a "source of all earthly energy", but goes no further; thus ignoring (not only) the energy that the Earth itself provides.


4: A consequence of points 1 - 3; as everything else, life is only a special form of what is.

Living tissue, as all else, except for perhaps the existence of matter itself, is a chain consequence of gravity.

Just as gravity creates a mix of increasingly complex atoms out of simpler ones in the center of the stars, the lesser gravitational forces in the region of their satellites generate ever more complex molecules through chemical reaction, once pressure and temperature fall below the values necessary for serial condensation - first exothermic (oxidation...) then endothermic (reduction...); first loaded, then fed by the energy generated through the nearby centers of gravity.


5. A consequence of points 1 - 4; applies to all forms of energy conversion, of which the human economy is only a special area.



More to point 5:



Thus to the contrary, point 5 states:


BTW:


Plants do perform work. They move large masses of matter against strong forces by burning carbohydrates produced with sunlight via photosynthesis.


However, plants are a secondary form of life. Life was before plants; and even today, primary and secondary life goes on in lightless deep- sea volcanic areas via a process aptly named chemosynthesis.

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^ TOP ^


- Prospect 1850 -

  Where did it all go wrong?


To put it as brutally as possible:


In my opinion, Marx was utterly wrong when, around 1867, he stated that all profit stems from human labour; but all others were too, for he was not alone in this assumption.

Even his sworn enemies still today postulate the economic profit of human labour; their only fight with their counterparts is over the proper allocation of that purely arithmetic cookbook profit - and, more importantly, the allocation of the clandestine debt hidden deep within the recipe.

They were, and are, wrong on two counts: one, that human labour is the (sole) source of profit, as opposed to that of animals or machines; two, that this profit exists at all.

Humans, animals, or machines all produce a loss through any action; this loss, if not compensated for by gravity, is then hidden somewhere to produce a faux and faked profit.

Were it otherwise, industrialization would not have taken place.


Strangest is the fact that this idea of "profit through human labour" caught on the very instant mills began harnessing outside power, then steam engines began to outperform both humans and animals; yet no- one ever thought of allocating profit to an object, inanimate or not; only to its owner.

It may have been nothing more than some thought of compensation for expropriation.


Furthermore:


If two people pay each other for goods & services, they won't earn any money - their cheques (or i.o.u.'s) will just keep bouncing back and forth ("circulating" between two people).

And raising the number of participants has no effect on this inside game.

As a story in a comic strip called "Lucky Luke" once told of a Chinese town in the West, its inhabitants had decided to go, evenly, into one of two businesses; laundry shops and restaurants. Their idea was, of course, to thereby live clean and satisfied lives for ever after. Instead, they could not afford each other's services, and were dying dirty and hungry - until our hero Lucky Luke cajoled a horde of equally dirty and hungry cowboys into town, who brought in outside money and saved the day for everyone.


Funny as it is, it's wise as well.

The Chinese town inhabitants could not survive on themselves, because any economic activity produces a net loss: food is consumed; as is heat for water and soap, to name just a few.

The waste of this activity is then, hopefully, washed out of town by the river running through, polluting it on the way and depleting resources for ever by taking them into the sea. To compensate, 'outside' money has to come 'in' to purchase new resources as replacement from 'somewhere else'.

However, in a global economy there is no 'outside' money, nor are there 'outside' resources. Global resources have to be replenished in situ by something non- monetary, non- thermodynamic and non- economic:

I. e. gravity.


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^ TOP ^


So much for economics



Now, for the physical side of things.


According to wonderful Wikipedia, the concept of entropy was introduced by Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius, a German physicist and mathematician.


 "In 1865, Clausius gave the first mathematical version of the concept of entropy, and also gave it its name... He used the now abandoned unit 'Clausius' (symbol: Cl) for entropy. (1)

1 Clausius (Cl) = 1 calorie/degree Celsius (cal/°C) = 4.1868 joules per Kelvin (J/K)

The landmark 1865 paper in which he introduced the concept of entropy ends with the following summary of the first and second laws of thermodynamics:

The energy of the universe is constant. (2)

The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum. (3)
"


But why is it so difficult to calculate, let alone to measure entropy in any meaningful way or manner, and is it so fraught with exceptions, caveats, definitions, restrictions and special cases?

In my opinion, it could be that Clausius misinterpreted the physical dimension of entropy in 1865.


Interestingly, both possible mistakes (by Marx and Clausius respectively) would then have been made very much at around the same time, 1865/67, about 100 years after the invention of the steam engine; and moreover, both had to do with it.

Both Clausius and Marx wanted to theoretically understand the effect of running a steam engine, one physically and one as a means of production; Clausius as a physicist and Marx as an economist.

Both could have made a similar mistake, by viewing something the wrong way around; Marx by ignoring the inherent loss of the work process (energy and resource consumption), Clausius by naming something as positive which is inherently negative (entropy).


And things went on from there.


NOTE:


  1. Clausius clearly meant and aimed entropy to be measurable (in Cl); as in 3 Volts, 5 liters, or 25 Clausius, expressed generally in Q/T or energy divided by temperature.

    This unit was later "dropped", and dropped altogether. The question of a unit for entropy was never resolved.

    Of course, Q and T can be expressed in a variety of ways, and have to be, a specific unit missing, giving calculations of entropy a decidedly esoteric quality.


    Still, in physics, you can define any physical quantity you like. Some are dimensionless by nature, but Q and T are both quantifiable and have different units (J, K), so they don't cancel each other out.

    Defining S (Cl) = Q/T (J/K) or 1 Cl = 4.1868 J/K or any other fraction

    is therefore perfectly legit.



  2. Thermodynamics had already introduced the concept of irreversibility, which is expressly forbidden in classical mechanics.


    Newton's classical mechanics, useful as they still are, are an idealization; in reality, all processes on the level of energy conversion are not at all completely reversible, they "run out" after some time; but the overall conservation of mass and energy still holds.


    HOWEVER:

    This is no longer the case in the realm of either nuclear or astronomical physics, which do not abide by the Second Law of Thermodynamics; relativity or E/m=c² states that, once you go beyond classical mechanics, or classical thermodynamics, neither time nor space nor energy nor mass are constant in that classical sense.

    - So, the energy of the universe is NOT constant - at least not the way Clausius would have meant it in 1865.


    - But he could not have known this; as E = mc² was formulated almost half a century later by Einstein in 1905.



  3. Clausius' definition of entropy puts the temperature in the denominator of the fraction Q/T; if T approaches 0, Q/T approaches infinity, independent of Q.



This begs two questions:



These are mathematical conditions, not physical ones.


May it not have been a sign error, but an inversion by choice after all?


Back in 1865, these were the very beginnings of the understanding of thermodynamics; and Wikipedia and others tread, very, very carefully, by Jove! around the question WHY Clausius defined the new and hitherto unknown physical quantity of entropy as Q/T and not, say, T/Q.


Never mind the confusion of naming something as negative as "disorder" with a positive expression, thereby forcing the positive expression to be negative - "negative entropy" as in "negative disorder" or order.



So let's just assume

that way back then, an esteemed scientist named Clausius tentatively noticed a relationship between two physical quantities in the new field of thermodynamics concerning that very practical steam engine, where almost every definition was still unbelievably hazy; he had a 50/50 chance of getting it the right way around, and, just by chance, missed it.


Now, in science, anyone who comes up with something new has the patent, so to speak; it has to be plausible, yes, but it does not have to be proven right very much beyond that; in fact, the others have to prove it wrong.

This typically takes one or two generations, or 60 - 120 years; as scientific generations come along with hoards of disciples and scholars, with very vested interests. Einstein's revolution of physics would have been the perfect chance to right all wrongs; unfortunately, the scientific community was, at that time, involved in blowing one another up with utmost efficiency.


And if they perhaps slowly began to realize that this entropy thing might be a bit wrong in theory and dimension, maybe in some controversies decades later ongoing, I could guess they didn't want to rewrite everything they had already written on the subject, and get everyone & everything all horribly confused, so they quietly dropped the unit as useless and left it at that, hoping that as X/Y = 1/Y/X, they could handle it mathematically, as this was all extremely theoretical stuff anyway - or so they thought.


Unfortunately, 1 liter makes sense, but 1/liter is a useless expression. Reality is a bitch... you cannot express volume in 1/liter or measure 1/volumeth by 1/liter without completely messing things up, and in consequence ripping an ever- widening hole in the time- space continuum, raising Cthulhu and causing chaos to reign in the process of going mad - especially once you find out that you are not dealing with something marginal that you can frame at will, but the effective, glowing CORE of all being.

Of course, you can always use J/K to express or compare a certain amount of S, as in 2,4x10³ J/K or any conversion thereof.

But it still seems like they want to (very successfully!) deter you from doing so and hide the fact that S = Q/T makes no real sense, and cannot be expressed as some measurable quantity as in

 "x J/K" will have twice the effect of "x/2 J/K".


And so you will find very few concrete and public calculations of entropy on the net... and indeed, there are controversies about whether it can be measured at all.


So let's just further assume

that if someone defines a new physical quantity you can measure, and a unit you can express it in, but then his colleagues go on to scrap the unit, while continuing to calculate the quantity under multiple definitions, names & combination of units - well, there seems to be something amiss.



I have no idea if this is the case or even a viable thought; but it may be that the concept of entropy could be in for a major revision, perhaps a new definition.


So, just for the exercise, let us re- define entropy as "untropy" Su = T/Q (Ugh).

If T approaches 0, T/Q now approaches 0, independent of Q.



This results in the following changes of the above:


  1. The untropy of the universe can still tend to a maximum, but since its mean temperature is near absolute zero (and has been for long), and therefore its untropy Su is at the moment very low.

    When & where was its maximum?

    When its temperature was extremely high in the beginning? Could be. Or perhaps in the end, if it collapses. Who knows, who cares, we now have a long way to go.

    The untropy of objects such as the Sun and Earth or a can of gasoline could quite easily be calculated and measured in "Ugh", by dividing its momentary temperature by its energy content - if that makes any sense:

    ("Temperature per Unit of Energy" - seems so...)

     "x K/J" will then indeed have twice the effect of "x/2 K/J" - or 2 Ugh (K/J) have twice the effect of 1 Ugh (K/J) - probably true, whatever it may mean.


    If you burn the can of gasoline, or run an engine on it, the overall untropy in the surroundings will rise, because the overall temperature T rises, while the First Law of Thermodynamics sees to it that Q stays the same.


    So, nothing changes there; the laws governing thermodynamics are safe.



  2. For something to have low untropy, either the temperature T in T/Q must be low, or the energy content Q must be high.

    So, zero untropy being defined as a condition prevailing at T = 0 K is perfectly fine. At 0 K, any energy content is irrelevant. That sounds Ok...

    At any temperature above 0 K, the energy content Q must be high for the untropy to be low.

    Low untropy means high energy potential? That sounds Ok as well...


    There seem to be no exceptions and conditions and caveats here...


    Everything falls into place...

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^ TOP ^


So, with this new quantity in mind, let's have a qualitative look at the workings of gravity again, shall we?


A cloud of hydrogen the size of a solar system and a mean temperature of around 0 K collapses and forms a star. The energy content Q is now higher. The temperature T, formerly near 0 K, now is higher as well.

Is Su2 = T2/Q2 (after collapse) <|> Su1 = T1/Q1 (before collapse)?


If you set Su to T/Q, something very strange happens. The untropy within the space taken up by the cloud is already near 0, as T is near 0. Now the mean temperature T within that space increases as it empties, being very hot in a very small concentrated center but staying near 0 K in the outskirts of that solar system; and empty space has no temperature anyway. Increasing T, however slightly, increases untropy Su.

But how high is Q? That is up for debate; but as the hydrogen cloud collapses, billions of tons begin to dislocate and move towards their center of gravity, steadily raising their energy level until the release of nuclear energy may occur; Q is increased as well. Increasing Q lowers untropy Su.


Which factor will have the upper hand? The race is on. But one thing is clear: under these premises, the untropy of a dark and cold cloud of hydrogen gas or plasma is already very low at the beginning, and gravitational collapse tends not so much to lower untropy but to preserve that original state of low untropy while increasing the energy level of the system.


It may yet be that untropy is only viable where energy release or conversion takes place; simple heat transfer may not suffice.

This outcome of a mathematical manipulation is very strange indeed.



- - - - - - - - -


But the overall concept even has a philosophical or theological aspect:


What people do, what physicists do, with all respect, is totalitarian: they would like to ensnare everything that humans have ever thunk into one, single, all- encompassing Theory of Everything.

The trouble is, humans just keep on thinking, to be "as God" - and that already went wrong at least once before.

Now, looking for the Source of Everything is quite the opposite. Once you have the source, the quest is over - no matter what follows next. It just keeps on unfolding. Like so, for instance:


So far, so good.


The universe is not symmetric!


And that freedom alone is quite overwhelming.




A possible solution?



Could this be the solution?


[ If you use the second formula, the expansion and cooling of the universe alone would lower its entropy ]




- - - - - - - - -


An example (an analogy): The (RE-) definition of speed 500 years ago



The technical vs. everyday definition of speed:

So why do we do this? Until recently, the speed or velocity of objects was maybe of military importance; the distance was all-important, and so was the time.

Then someone came along and found that inverting the formula spared you inverting the result. But who, when and why? And what for?

Wikipedia states that the current definition of speed was first arrived at by Galileo Galilei, who laid down that "velocity" (v) should furthermore be defined as "distance by time", or:

v = d / t


Now, it is of minor importance if it was indeed Galileo, or someone else, or when speed or velocity was defined exactly. The importance lies in the fact that:

  1. This was a decision to make, as the relationship between space and time could be set in two ways:

    v = d / t
    ( = distance by time )

    or

    v = t / d ( = time by distance )


  2. Both definitions are equally valid mathematically. But they are not the same; their use has dissimilar consequences.

Now, even before one definition was chosen over the other for all future, physical speed, other than "entropy" some centuries later, was not a new concept; it had been an issue over millennia, in the realms of sports, military, commerce and many more.

That said, since obviously up to a certain point in western history (~1500) it had not been defined in a mathematical equation, how had it been defined before?

And why did Galileo, if we credit him with the new mathematical definition (revolutionizing science, as he was wont to), favor "distance by time" over "time by distance"?


The mathematical consequences


If you wish to validate a definition or formula, you test for the extremes - infinity and zero; zero is usually enough.

Let's do so for both. And what do we find?

  1. v = t / d    (ancient, everyday definition: a two days' march from here to there)


    for t = 0 (no time at all)

    Duration = 0 / d = 0

    I. e., if the time needed to cover a certain distance is zero, then the duration to cover this distance is zero; this may be silly, but mathematically valid - and impossible in reality, as Einstein will find out, defining the minimal duration of any movement as the minimal duration light with ~1/300.000.000 s/m; t can never be 0, not even for the shortest of distances.

    Of course, even before Einstein, people knew that movement always takes time, and there was no such thing as infinite speed. For if the time to cover any distance was zero, then an object would be in more than one place at the same time, if the distance was not 0 as well.

    However, the really impossible is mathematically valid in this formula.


    But even worse, for d = 0 (immobility)

    Duration = t / 0

    the formula is not defined.

    In other words, in this definition of speed, immobility is mathematically invalid.

    And that is bad, as immobility exists in reality - at least relative immobility here on Earth.


    Now we try the new, inverted formula, as in use and credited to Galileo Galilei:


  2. v = d / t    (new, technical definition: the speed of the object as such)


    for d = 0 ( immobility )

    Velocity = 0 / t = 0

    Meaning: if an object stays where it is, its (relative) speed is zero. This passes the reality check and is mathematically valid: Immobility exists.


    But for t = 0

    Velocity = d / 0

    the formula is not defined.

    In other words, in this definition of speed, infinite speed is mathematically invalid - which is also an expression of reality: An object can only be in one place at any time.


    But if the formula v = d / t was or is invalid at or near the point of t=0, if the distance is not 0 as well, does that not theoretically make it universally invalid, as it is not universally valid - since the point from where it becomes increasingly impossible is not clearly defined? Well, t=0 is still an improbable condition - it still means that an object can be in two places at the same time.

    And when that condition finally became imaginable, Einstein came along and defined the speed of light as the ultimate speed with ~300.000.000 m/s; again, t can never be 0, not even for the shortest of distances; so the theoretically possible mathematical problem does not exist in reality, due to external circumstances - which is interesting all in itself. (Has gravity something to do with it?)

    Now, whenever v = d / t nears the speed of light, relativity steps in or rather, out of the margin of error, and strange things happen to time and space.

    Both ends of the spectrum - zero speedimmobility, d = 0 ) and ultimate speedthe speed of light ) are now validly defined.

Problem solved:

Invert the ancient definition of speed, define it as d / t, and without having misrepresented reality one way or another, all you need to throw now is one exception only, which is real, and let Einstein take care of that.

Was Galileo just lucky to pick the right one out of two possibilities, the one where the zero condition is excepted by nature (with the end speed of light), or genius enough to think it through?

We may never know. But then, again, other than entropy, speed was already known.

And so, that is what I think will happen if we turn Clausius' mangled definition of entropy on its head:

The mess clears up instantly


And then all we have to do is calculate everything once more.

Just once more.

; - )






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Just for curiosity: The gravity 'time machine' experiment




Experiment 1 - 345 kb MPG


The gravity time machine experiment -
A detour through a gravity dip saves time


This simple experiment does not prove or disprove anything said on the thermodynamics page.


I have put it here to show that, while the laws of thermodynamics rule, there may be more to it than meets the eye.



The Author of the site I took it from writes:





The track cyclists's trick

"Sometimes a cyclist can overtake another one only by letting himself be carried far up the steep curve, to then gain speed on the way down. This is so widely known by athletes that nobody thinks very much about it.

Dr. Werner Klein has nevertheless made the effort to examine this effect more closely in the periodical 'Physics in our Time' ( Physik in unserer Zeit ) 1998/2. In my opinion, this is the first actual proof that there is more at work here than the law of conservation of energy, although, contrary to all other opinions, this is expressedly not violated by it."


And he asks:


"What, if not Energie, has caused the goal to be reached in shorter time?"






This simple machine, which converts potential energy into kinetic energy, does not break the rules of thermodynamics, but shows that taking a detour through even a slight gravitational dip will conspicuously save time - even though in sum, no extra energy is gained or consumed.

The detour saves time, not energy - space is crossed in shorter time by taking a longer route at a given energy consumption. The end speed is obviously the same. In simple mechanics, one should expect exactly the opposite - or should one?

A longer route in shorter time means higher average speed -
which is acheived here with the same energy potential -
and therefore with equal end velocity.



See for yourself by clicking on the video:





Here's another, showing this phenomenon is irreversible:









Sources:

Home Lab Page
This experiment was taken from the site http://www.hcrs.at/KUGEL.HTM, where it is explained and put into context with more descriptions, including an excel-spreadsheet (all in German).



The original MPG-File:

Experiment 1 - 345 kb MPG



Source of the second file is here)





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On second thoughts:


Adding some thought experiment


"Thermodynamics deals with irreversible events - which, according to Newton, should not exist."

- so someone said.



So let us combine both in some thought experiment, and consider the field of mechanical energy storage and recovery - a process that is reversible in principle 1.


First to the dynamic realm:

The lake of a pumped storage power station is filled, with the help of a defined amount of energy E (+HL1, the inevitable heat loss) 2; when emptying, the same amount of energy E is recovered (-HL2, the again inevitable loss of heat).

So, the same amount of energy (minus the waste heat not to be converted) was employed, then recovered; the difference is zero; and with the water back in its former place, the original state is indeed restored. In the meantime, however, tons of water were moved. By what? Is not the amount of energy consumed zero? And was not the water moved upwards, against gravity, half of the time and distance?


Now to the static realm:

A pendulum is deflected and swings (almost) up to the same height on the other side (again, the loss is not recoverable). The potential energy of the pendulum is now the same as before; however, the mass of the pendulum is now in another place. How did it get there? Because again, half of the time (and distance) the pendulum was moved upwards, against gravity.


Both processes correspond to the oscillating of the balance wheel in a mechanical clock.

Of course, there are valid explanations 3; but the matter becomes really remarkable when one considers that both of these processes do not work in weightlessness; outside of a gravitational field there is no (mechanical) potential energy; so a pendulum stays put in any position.

On the other hand, if you accelerate a bucket of (of course frozen) water in a certain direction in weightlessness, not only will you be accelerated in the opposite direction; as with a bowling ball on a ping-pong table or boat on a lake, you will need additional energy to reverse and catch up with the bucket drifting off in the opposite direction - without, on balance, being able to benefit from its energy.

So, as it seems, this type of mechanical energy storage and recovery is only possible within range of a gravitational field 4.

[Other, secondary ones, of course are; such as electrical, chemical, compressed-air- or spring- loaded.]

But it goes on:

Even more important is the energy-producing and entropy-destroying effect of gravity:

A rock in the universe, with its absolute place and velocity indeterminate(*), has, in itself, neither kinetic nor potential energy, only mass; if, however, a planet approaches it with its gravitational field, it may accelerate the chunk to a speed higher than its own; the formerly energy-free stone now possesses both forms of mechanical energy, and this even increasingly so, in relation to the other's center of gravity.

And when it hits, thermal energy is generated: several thousand degrees are created in place of a former temperature close to absolute zero. And all of this without the use of outside energy; all this energy, up to then, was simply not there before.

Could it be that here, right before our very eyes and yet unnoticed, a mystery has its solution, namely the unconditional emergence from nothing, the source of all being beyond a cloud of hydrogen, as well as the energy that energizes the existing, and ultimately allows life within it?

And is this newly formed energy, whose movement (and compulsory disorder and loss) generating laws are so well known, at the same time, albeit to varying degrees, inextricably intertwined with its origin, the likewise energetic and orderly acting, creative gravity?

Is this the end of the search for the fountain of youth, the source of all life? Even if eternal renewal can not proceed without eternal destruction, because nothing is lost in the universe, but always has to be recreated anew.

* 1) Newton's first law of motion, known as 'The Law of Inertia', states that objects at rest, and objects moving in a straight line, are equivalent; not moving at all and moving in a straight line are one and the same thing, and cannot be discerned; it is impossible to tell if an object is standing still or moving in a straight line; this depends on the frame of reference.

  2) Matter is passive and inert; it can only be influenced from the outside. Objects cannot move by themselves: "If nothing happens, nothing happens."

  -  So how can living beings move?


Notes:


  1. The point is not to dispute the laws of mechanics and thermodynamics that have been proven and applied for centuries, but to look at their curiosities, presuppositions and connections. ^

  2. That portion of energy that is not used for the movement but heats the environment. ^

  3. Also for the track cyclist- problem: Taking a longer detour through a gravity sink leads to an earlier arrival at the same final speed (i. e. the same final energy). ^

  4. This applies, as will be shown here, at least indirectly to any energy storage and recovery, as well as energy generation^





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Further Reading:


Home



Read more:







See also:   The Gravity 'Time Machine'


Go to :   The Encyclopedia of Human Thermodynamics discussion forum

BBC Archives: Comments on the second law of thermodynamics (Forum)


Listen to:   The Second Law of Thermodynamics - the most important thing you will ever know

From the BBC In Our Time Series on Thursday, 16. December 2004; Comments:


"Gravity produces negative entropy or order out of disorder"
"Energy and Gravity in the universe add up to Zero"
"Gravity stores negative energy"

- so I gather this is not entirely unknown... -






©  JHR 01/2005

Last revised:
23.05.2020




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