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To close off the week of thermodynamics, here is the final law of thermodynamics: The Third. You can see why that joke is so amazing in only 90 Seconds.
Find out by listening to the CultureCast above (by pressing the little blue play botton), or by clicking through and checking out the transcript and further sources.
Third Law of Thermodynamics: Absolutely ordered (CultureCast #028)
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Transcript
Hey CultureCrew, this is Joshua Hwang organizing your molecules with another 90 Seconds to Culture podcast.
[The] Third Law of Thermodynamics: Absolutely ordered
I’ll let you in on a big secret: I’m a huge Star Trek nerd.
In an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, one character, Seven, is mesmerized by the perfect beauty of the Omega molecule. But due to its unstable nature and destructive potential, it must be destroyed.
The beauty I find in physics is the idea that there can be unbreakable laws to explain a chaotic universe. The third law of thermodynamics describes what would need to happen to cause the disorder or “spread out-ness” of a substance to reach its minimum. In essence, what would need to happen for a substance to be “perfectly” ordered.
The third law of thermodynamics states: as the temperature of an object approaches absolute zero, all processes cease and the entropy of the system approaches a minimum value.
This means that there is a theoretical temperature (absolute zero) that is so cold that molecules stop moving. This temperature is roughly -273 degrees Celsius or -460 Fahrenheit. At this temperature, the entropy of the system will get as close to zero as possible. For a further explanation of entropy check out CultureCast 26: Entropy.
Although it is not possible to reach absolute zero, because there is always a base amount of energy in molecules that can’t be removed [zero-point energy], I still like to imagine what it would look like for the Third Law of Thermodynamics to be manifested and to see a perfectly ordered system at absolute zero.
Sources / Further Reading:
Wikipedia: Third Law of Thermodynamics
Third Law of Thermodynamics FAQ
[tags]thermodynamics, physics, third law of thermodynamics, absolute zero, podcast, culture[/tags]
(image from Roo Reynolds via flickr)
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