Appendix 1.4 Entropy

Now..

                 MASS    +    ENERGY    =     INFORMATION

is the EQUATION of LIFE..
It's the basis of the assumption that life will evolve on Earth like planets.. so

             ROCK  +  LIQUID WATER    +    HEAT   =    DNA

MUST be true for life to evolve.. To fail to question this assumption is to fail to do science.

2. Entropy is an EXTRINSIC property.. meaning its value depends on factors which are not inherent to the mass of the system.

Weight is an extrinsic property of mass because its value depends upon the strength of the gravitational acceleration where it is being measured.

The absolute entropy of any system depends upon only ONE thing.. 'W' the thermodynamic probability of the system. It is the number of micro-states in that macro-state.. Given all micro-states are equally likely a system (of particles) will tend to move to a macro-state with more micro-states and so entropy increases.

The absolute entropy of the dice is a combination of both the PHYSICAL state and the LOGICAL state (ie double 3). The Clausius equation for entropy change can account for the physical state during the process of manufacture but only the Boltzmann equation can account for the logical state which is extrinsic because it is not dependent on the mass of the dice.


The important thing to understand about the Second Law is systems left to themselves will tend to move to a more probable state. All we need is a probability calculation to determine the STRENGTH of that tendency. For a large system it is not sufficient for it just to be POSSIBLE, it must be PROBABLE..

For DNA (large book, even for bacteria) the total number of possible arrangements is what determines its absolute entropy and the possibility of that state arising from random mutations (mass + energy).

So does the Second Law define a boundary between possible and probable?

one more on this..