Saturday, June 23, 2012

The real number one

     The blog is called Aristotle's Mistake.  It comes from a Bertrand Russell quote.  I came up with the idea for this blog during a small obsession with logic and all things logic related.  So yeah I like math.  And physics.  It's a healthy enjoyment of all things related to how the world works.
     Growing up, my father used to tell me how important it is know how things work.  To that end, I learned how to take things apart (I'm just starting to learn how to put them back together again.)  What I've realized is, physics is rules to how things work.  Think of this way; the world is  a board game, and we are learning the rules as we go along.  Nothing we do falls outside of these rules, but we don't fully understand the rules.  So, we can do something that doesn't make sense at first, but that helps us fully understand the game.  Math is a way to translate these rules to others.
     Now that I've starting flapping my gums a bit, lets talk about some more things that may or may not make sense.  Recently, I've been enjoying books and writing about thermodynamics.  If you walk down into my living room, you'll first notice that my roommates have somehow contained my mess to the table.  Upon closer inspection of said table, you'll notice that it is covered in books.  These are roommates, true, but I'm in the process of reading them.  And yes, they are all textbooks on engineering, thermodynamics, and hydrodynamics.  Then there all the essays and books on the subject in my room.  In short, I want to summarize what I have learned, I really do.  But I'm not sure how.
     The person who let me burrow her textbooks claimed I'm obsessed with entropy, so I'll start with that.  Entropy is . . . disorder!  At a macroscopic level (you know, a large level) entropy is the "waste" energy.  My reasoning for this definition is Rudolf Clausius.  Clausius referenced Sadi Carnot's work in his own essay "On the Moving Force of Heat and the Laws of Heat which may be Deduced Therefrom".  Carnot laid down much of the foundation for thermodynamics and many after him added to it.  Clausius used Carnot's example of a steam engine, and in a nutshell explained how some heat will escape the system.  That's why I call it the waste.
     Ok, I'm done for now.  I'll pick up there later.   I think from now on, when I write, I'll just try to tranq my brain the best I can.  Someone may come across this.  When it comes to probability, the chances of someone even seeing this is slim.  Whatever, it's fun.

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