Maxwell's Demon - Not a Perpetual Motion Machine
Entropy is not a difficult concept to just take at face value, but it is a difficult topic to gain a good understanding of. To do this some background must be given such as the first and second law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics states that any event that occurs spontaneously must result in an increase in the randomness of lhe syslem. This means that as an ice cube melts the water molecules that it is composed of will progress toward a less ordered arrangement. The leaves that fall from the trees do nol arrange themselves in a pile on the ground because the second law of thermodynamics is against it. Entropy is a concept that most high school chemistry and physics students enjoy learning about because the now have an excuse for having a messy room, they are fighting nature.
For a better understanding of the theory of entropy it helps to understand the first law of thermodynamics, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it may only change forms. In other words the energy of the universe is constant. For the universe (the ultimate system) to give up energy to increase ordered is not a likely event. Therefore ,for a system, a persons room for example, to become more ordered, energy must be put into the system, cleaning the room. Everything in the universe is governed by entropy through the Gibbs free energy equation which states; the heat content of the system, minus the temperature of the system times the entropy, or randomness will dictate whether the event will be spontaneous. Entropy is actually centered around the probability of an event occurring. The greater the statistical probability of a particular event occurring, the greater the entropy. A good example of this is an experiment with a new deck of playing cards. When the cards are first unwrapped they are arranged in numerical order and according to suit, if the cards are thrown into the air and allowed to fall to the floor. When they are swept up and restacked, we will almost certainly find that the cards have become disordered. We would expect this disordering to occur because there are millions of ways for the cards to become disordered and only one way for them to come together again in their original sequence.
Another result of the second law of thermodynamics is that spontaneous changes are always accompanied by a dispersal of energy into a more disordered form.
ROPER, R and LOGAN, W and TIERNEY, A (2003) The Roper Logan Tierney Model of Nursing. London: Elsevier.
Throughout the modern era scientists and mathematicians have believed the world and it’s various systems follow a linear order. Much like a clock ticking second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. The belief was predictable in nature, following a simple order. However, there are many unexplainable events that occur every second across the world that do not fit this model. The opposite theory by natural law is chaos. Ancient Greek philosophers believed Chaos was evil, it dwelled in the underworld among the dead, it was opposite of Gaia, the goddess of the earth that was seen as good and orderly. In 1961 scientist began to study the idea that they may have missed something big and that was ideas of chaos and how it related to weather, science and especially ecology.
Scientists used to, before the chaos theory, believe in the theory of reductionism, many still do. Reductionism imagines nature as equally capable of being assembled
It teaches us to expect the unexpected. A famous example of chaos theory, referred to as the "butterfly effect, “postulates that the beat of a butterfly's wing could trigger a breath of breeze
Randomization, in the form of mutations, provides genetic variation. Evolution itself is not entirely a random process, but the mutations that have appeared throughout history are. Because of this, one would argue that with the summation of many mutations over time, evolution would inevitably create more randomization within the system resulting in an increase in disorder. In an isolated system, the overall entropy would undoubtedly increase following a series of mutations. Because of natural selection (the idea that an organism that is better suited to its environment will survive and produce more offspring than those organisms who are not), it can be said that chance mutations are not the only driving force behind evolution, thus evolution is not entirely a spontaneous process (Williams,
We come first to premise (1), which is confirmed in virtually ever area of our sense experience. Even quantum fluctuations, which many suppose to be uncaused, are causally conditioned in that they depend on the existence of a pre-existing quantum vacuum. Indeed, if we suppose (1) to be false, then there is nothing preventing just anything and everything from popping into existence anywhere and at any time. But obviously this doesn't happen -- the universe exhibits regular law-like behavior.
Thorne, S. (2010). Theoretical Foundation of Nursing Practice. In P.A, Potter, A.G. Perry, J.C, Ross-Kerr, & M.J. Wood (Eds.). Canadian fundamentals of nursing (Revised 4th ed.). (pp.63-73). Toronto, ON: Elsevier.
Management accounting in organisation is very important for decision-making and to make the business more efficient and therefore increasing its profits. Is the process of preparing accounts that can help managers to make day-to-day and short-term decisions, by providing them with accurate and timely key financial and statistical information...
Managerial accounting has changed over the years. Managerial accounting focuses on more than the financial aspect. We will be looking at how managerial accounting affects the business world today. Business also look to the economy, federal taxes, and the financial market so it can make the best decisions for their business.
While we live our lives, we often wonder whether the things we do will impact the future; and sometimes, our actions end up for the better and other times, for the worse. This “little-cause big-effect” idea we have is what we call the butterfly effect. Like those speeches organizations give when trying to get you to donate money, the butterfly effect tells us that the things we do at the beginning, even the tiny ones, have an inexpressible impact in the world later in time. In fact, the butterfly effect lives up to its name pretty well. Its discovery lead to the popularization of the Chaos Theory, the loss of the true message from its discoverer, and a impact in the way weather is forecasted and the entertainment world. In this sense, the
Kant answers Hume by explaining that “everything that happens, that is, begins to be, presupposes something upon which it follows by rule," (1965 ed., p. 218). Kant considers this universal principle of causality as a synthetic a priori truth. According to Kant, what he considers to be ‘irreversible sequences’ indicate the causal order. For instance,...
...tbreeding. Random forces usually lead to genetic drift. It is possible that there can be random fluctuations in the numbers of alleles in a population. Genetic drift is defined as these changes in relative allele frequency which can either increase or decrease by chance over the period of time.
"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." This quote by A.J. Liebling illustrates the reality of where the media stands in today's society. Over the past twenty years there has been an increase in power throughout the media with regard to politics. The media's original purpose was to inform the public of the relevant events that occurred around the world. The job of the media is to search out the truth and relay that news to the people. The media has the power to inform the people but often times the stories given to the public are distorted for one reason or another. Using slant and sensationalism, the media has begun to shape our views in society and the process by which we choose our leaders. There was once a time when the government used the media as a medium to influence voters, committees, communities etc. Recently, it has been the presidents of major media outlets that have not only exercised power over the public but also made their presences felt in government and in the halls of congress. When the word democracy is thrown about it usually has to do with the rights or original intentions for a group or organization. The first group intended to be influenced by the media was the informed voter. Political parties along with the government used a variety of media resources to persuade the voter or in effect receive a vote for their cause. Returning to the thought of ?democracy? the question is, what was the original intention of the media with relation to the theme of democracy and the informed voter? To analyze this thought thoroughly one must first grasp an understanding of the basic definition of democracy.
Management accounting is a method of identification, measurement, analysis, preparation and communication of information. It is utilized by management to evaluate, plan and control an entity. The primary purpose of management accounting is to provide information useful for management decisions significantly on planning and control purposes. Management accounting is concern with useful information to managers or someone in an organization who control the entity. Management accounting can play an important role in making organization become successful because it is a method that can be used to analyse a company’s financial information. Management accounting also helps in planning for future needs and goals of the business. Then it is a must for
There is a linkage between the mass media and democracy. The press in the Gold Coast played a significant role in the struggle for the country’s independence from colonialism. Ghana was birth after independence and it has experienced a history of democracy and a mixture of coup d’états. This reduced the beauty of the once vibrant democratic state to a state where the rights of many Ghanaians were imprisoned, beaten, killed by soldiers. Journalist like Kweku Barku, Kwesi Pratt and others were beaten extensively and some were killed as a result of providing the citizens with information on how the military were corrupt. These inhuman treatments brought a state of fear and relegated the media to a background of silence and created no freedom of speech and also to show how powerful there were by creating a state of fear. In 1992 Ghana re-establish democracy called the Fourth Republican Constitutional democracy. The mass media has contributed so much to our peaceful five successful presidential and parliamentary elections that have been held. The constitution of Ghana has embedded in it the rule of law which has given the fundamental rights including freedom of media, association and freedom of speech among many. The mass media is more vibrant than ever before and today governments rely on the media for information from the people and also help government to disseminate information to the people. The role of the media is vital to keep or destroy our democracy.