Re: Thermodynamics


Doune wrote:
Dear Andrew

Many thanks for taking time to reply

After replies in other posts, I've modified this to "Energy dissipates
via the most efficient route" or "most efficient route" instead of
"available route" - although I meant it to be the same thing. It was
just I first considered the results of Yang and Lee (on weak
interaction's violation of the law of parity conservation), to be
counter-intuitive. I expanded it to cover all instances rather than
limiting it to a binary option.

I don't think this works. Consider parallel electric circuits, where
energy is deposited along both paths simultaneously. This "parallel
circuit" analysis also applies to magnetic flux, to heat flow, to fluid
flow, and a variety of other circumstances.

Even in quantum mechanics, the path integral formulation says that all
paths between initial and final states contribute to the total process
(though in this case there is entanglement between the various paths
and consequent interference phenomena that are not considered in the
classical examples).


Gibbs free energy concerns the energy which is available for doing
work, not the process or mechanism of exchange (e.g. it could equally
be used for convection or conduction). The idea I am putting forward is
very basic and much simpler than the derived concept of Gibbs, that is:
exchanging energy *always* exploits the most efficient (i.e. easiest)
route.

If you mean tunnelling in the quantum mechanical sense, then again I am
not concerned with what the process is, just that if there is an
exchange of energy that it exploits the most efficient route. In the
original post, I simply meant that there must be a process or route
available to exchange energy (a binary Yes or No option). Now I have
expanded this to mean that when there are multiple routes available, as
is generally the case, then the exchange is via the most efficient
route.

Best regards

SCW

.

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