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Jul 11 at 3:11 vote accept ether
Jul 4 at 7:22 comment added David Tonhofer "Life" as the hardest cyclers: A New Physics Theory of Life: An MIT physicist has proposed the provocative idea that life exists because the law of increasing entropy drives matter to acquire lifelike physical properties. (Paper, Talks)
Jul 4 at 3:14 comment added ether @Neil_UK Perhaps I need to expand my idea of what constitutes a thermodynamic cycle. I had been thinking of the working substance as a closed system, but maybe it is better to think of open systems. As I understand it, the storm is constantly sucking up new moist warm air and then spitting out colder dry air. The same air is not reused. Similarly with the water: the ocean acts as a reservoir of water, with only a small amount of it passing through the storm.
Jul 4 at 2:56 comment added ether @hendlim I am coming around to the view that even man-made cyclic processes exhibit the same mixing effect that I brought up regarding the water cycle.
Jul 3 at 23:43 comment added hendlim From what I understand, what you expect is for the physical body to be in equilibrium every so often. This is not achievable in real world, complex problems, except when you confine your system to be small enough (one molecule, maybe?). In general, you have nonuniform (even chaotic) events that persists throughout the thermodynamic cycle that it is practically impossible for individual components of the cycle to "go through it together". Indeed, this may be one good reason why you don't usually see thermodynamic plots for these phenomena.
Jul 3 at 17:39 answer added anjama timeline score: 11
Jul 3 at 13:04 comment added Neil_UK would you regard the heat engine of a tropical storm acting in a 'cycle'?
Jul 3 at 11:43 history became hot network question
Jul 3 at 5:48 history edited ether CC BY-SA 4.0
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Jul 3 at 4:28 answer added hendlim timeline score: 22
Jul 3 at 3:41 history asked ether CC BY-SA 4.0