On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 7:19 PM, LizR <[email protected]> wrote: >> Yes but it's not always obvious what is physically possible and what is >> not. Is it physically possible that Germany could have won the second world >> war? Yes. Is it physically possible that 2+2=5 ? No. Is it physically >> possible that the second law of thermodynamics is wrong? No. Is it >> physically possible that the first law of thermodynamics is wrong? I don't >> know. >> > > > So it isn't obvious. (The second law can be wrong for arbitrary amounts > of time, actually.) >
The second law is not wrong about that because the second law says nothing about what entropy might do over arbitrarily short amounts of time, it only speaks about what entropy is certain to do as time approaches infinity. The second law is wrong in the same universe that 2 +2 =5, that is to say the same universe where logic does not hold. I do not think such a universe exists. Perhaps the first law is just as fundamental as the second, perhaps not. Right now we believe in the first law not because it would be illogical to believe otherwise but just because so far we've never seen mass-energy created or destroyed. I doubt it but it's not inconceivable that tomorrow we will, but it is inconceivable that tomorrow 2+2 will be 5 or that the second law is wrong. John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
