Managing the chaos
The science of Entropy and its impact
on our lives
Chris Collison
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
cjcscha@rit.edu
Dreamland?
• 1967 testimony before Senate
subcommittee indicated that by 1985
– Work week of 22 hours, or
– 27 working weeks per year, or
– Retire for good at 38
• Computers, satellites, robotics –
“Productivity boosting machines”
• Why did this not happen?
1956 GE Dishwasher
www.adclassix.com
1966 Pontiac Bonneville
www.adclassix.com
1949 Thor Washing Machine
www.adclassix.com
Inspired by…
Outline
• Quantifying Chaos
– Entropy’s history
– Entropy in Thermodynamics
– Entropy in Chemistry
– How do we define entropy?
• Entropy in our daily lives.
Entropy in our daily lives
•
•
•
•
In the home
Automotives
Technology
Education
Driving Forces of Nature
• Energy
• Entropy
• Process will occur when Energy is
decreased, or when Entropy is increased.
1st – Let’s consider Energy
• Laws of Thermodynamics - laws we
must live by
• Energy Cannot be Created or
Destroyed
– Impossibility of perpetual motion
machines
• Why is energy important to us?
• Where does all our energy come
from?
The pump?
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://trav
is.kroh.net/archives/003205.jpg&imgrefurl=http://tra
vis.kroh.net/archives/2004_07.phtml&h=480&w=64
0&sz=80&tbnid=UcAhptmpcUPHM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3
Fq%3Dgas%2Bpump&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&
ct=image&cd=2
http://www.frankgalasso.com/IMAGES/editorials/gas%20pump.jpg
The Sun?
• But how can we store this solar energy?
http://images.google.com/images?q=sun+photo&hl=en&rls=RNWE,RNWE:200513,RNWE:en&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title
Energy storage
http://www.geokem.com/images/scans/Indonesian_coal_mine.jpg
http://energy.usgs.gov/factsheets/Coalbed/well.html
Energy “Consumption and
Production”
• Stored energy in fossil fuels provides us
with our energy needs.
Data from www.doe.gov
And energy demand?
Growing economies require more
energy
• Energy demand is increasing
Data from www.doe.gov
Cost of Energy (Electricity)
Data from www.doe.gov
What is our expenditure limited to?
What is our efficiency limited to?
Where does chaos come in?
Two Kinds of Energy
• Ordered Energy – Work done
• Disordered Energy – Heat
– Increased vibrations, translations of
microscopic particles
• How are they linked?
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot
(June 1, 1796 - August 24, 1832)
• Scientific study of the
steam engine
• Efficiency in early stages of
engine development was
mere 3%.
• Carnot showed that
efficiency of an engine
design is always limited to
about 40%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_L
%C3%A9onard_Sadi_Carnot
Carnot
Cycle
• Hot gas expands,
doing work
• Gas compressed
to original state
• Net energy = 0
• Work done
enclosed in curve
• Heat in = Work
done + Heat out
Entropy in Thermodynamics
• Entropy’s effect is that
– Heat  work requires taking heat from a hot
source and depositing waste heat to a cold
reservoir
• Efficiency is given by
wout Th  Tc
Efficiency 

qin
Th
• Efficiency is not 100%
• So how do we increase efficiency?
What impact has this on electricity generation?
Coal Power Stations
• Combustion efficiency is 99.5%
• But heat  electricity (consumer) is 30-37% with
a pulverized coal burner
• Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle power
plants give higher efficiencies
• Supercritical boilers give efficiencies in the
40%’s. (Again, global efficiency of getting
electricity to consumer from the coal).
• Electric conversion (Transformers, transport) is
some 90%
Data from www.doe.gov
So why are we fundamentally
Limited?
• Entropy and 2nd Law of
thermodynamics restrict us
• Lord Kelvin stated:
mechanical work that could
have been harnessed is
“irrecoverably lost to man”
William Thomson
1st Baron Kelvin
1824-1907
Kelvin and Clausius
• “It is impossible to build
an engine that operates
on a cycle whose net
effect is the cooling of a
heat-reservoir and the
raising of a weight”
• We can’t take heat out
of the ocean to power
an ocean liner
Rudolph Clausius
1822-1888
Heat engines: Hot  Cold, with waste heat
Ordered energy?
• Work considered as “ordered”
• Heat energy is considered disordered
• Only so much ordered energy we can take
from disordered energy
• A hot bath is only pleasant while the water
is hot
• A luke warm bath has as much attraction
as an ice cold bath – this “warmth” is
irrecoverable
Inefficiency
• Power stations are inefficient because
– Disordered energy must be converted to
ordered energy
– We are pushing against nature’s tendency
towards disorder
Can we use Entropy to our
advantage in Thermodynamics?
• Fridges to heat our homes
– Heat is useful in winter
– Work (electricity) is used to move heat from
inside the fridge to outside the fridge
– Ordered energy is ultimately converted to
disordered energy
Taking this idea further…
• How about building a fridge to cool down
the ground?
• Heating Cycle, Geothermal Technology WFI Global
• Cooling Cycle, Geothermal Technology WFI Global
But again…What really is Entropy?
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann
February 20, 1844 – September 5,
1906
• Boltzmann was the
hero of statistical
mechanics and
“microstates”
Statistically…
• Entropy might be defined as the number of
microstates (configurations) that are
available to the system
S  kB ln W
– Where S = Entropy
– kB is Boltzmann’s constant (1.38×10−23 J K−1)
– W is the number of microstates corresponding
to the “observed macrostate”
Let’s look at an example…
An unbound thesis of 3 pages is
blown by a freak gust of wind
• It lands in a corner of the courtyard all pages
face up!
• Still in order?
• 3 pages  3! = 6 possible combinations
– 123
– 231
– 312
132
213
321
• 1 ordered microstate, 5 disordered microstates
• Likely to be disordered for probability reasons
• Yet change in entropy is low, albeit positive
Let’s now consider 200 pages
• 1 ordered microstate, 7.9 x 10374
disordered microstates
S  kB ln W
• For ordered thesis,
S=0
• For disordered thesis
S=1.2 x 10-20 JK-1mol-1
• But Entropy difference is so small?
What’s the fuss all about?
200 pages versus 6.02 x 1023 atoms
• 1 x 1025 water molecules in a can of soda
• Hence Entropy is very important to
chemists.
• Chemists “take ownership” perhaps
Summing up!
• Entropy is degree of disorder
• Entropy is a driving force for spontaneous
events
• Higher Entropy is inevitable
– Universe started in a very low entropy state
– Extremely low probability
• Entropy can be calculated using
probability and statistics.
So how does Entropy impact our daily lives?
A picture of order
• Ease of chaos versus the hard work of order
Chaos continues
“Rebuilding”
War in Iraq
•
•
•
•
Ease of destruction, regime change
Difficulty of rebuilding
Should we have known better?
Doesn’t Entropy aid in our predictions?
Where else do we see entropy?
Choice!
Choice – the American necessity
• Choice of
– Healthcare
– pasta sauce
– Cereal
– energy provider
– retirement plan
• Of course this is good for “competition” but
complexity leads to an increase in entropy!
Pasta Sauce
Pasta Sauce
• Choices, Choices, choices
So what are the costs and benefits and where does
entropy fit in?
The system and the surroundings
• Carnot Cycle tells us we must observe
– The heat engine (the system)
– The Surroundings
• When we consider entropy of pasta sauce
we must consider
• The Benefits (the system)
– Pricing pressure through competition
– Getting the right sauce for our taste buds
• The Costs (The surroundings)…
Global Costs of Choice – Pasta
sauce
• For each brand:
– Marketing
– Distribution
– Quality control
– Supply of raw ingredients
• For me:
– Making an educated decision (working
through the brands)
– Risk of making the wrong choice
Remember: Entropy always increases
Back to our dreamland…
• 1967 testimony before Senate
subcommittee indicated that by 1985
– Work week of 22 hours, or
– 27 working weeks per year, or
– Retire for good at 38
• Computers, satellites, robotics –
“Productivity boosting machines”
• Why did this not happen?
The total equation
• Remember - Laws of thermodynamics
compels us to look at the total equation –
not just the “system”
• Let’s look at some examples…
– Computers
– Automobiles
• Surely technological advances reduce
chaos and promote efficiency
Let’s have a look…
Computer vs. Abacus
• Speed but cost is production facility
• R&D expensive – Moore’s law How much
is the industry worth?
• Worldwide Photolithography Capital
spending in 2001 was $39.1Billion
– (Deutsche Bank “There’s Moore to Come Global Equity
Research document, 2001)
What matters most
• Total entropy increase in a thermodynamic
system
• Silicon chip manufacture requires
– “gases, chemicals, and solvents
– These become part of our environment
– Increases the entropy of our planet
• One 15cm silicon wafer (a few dozen chips)
requires:
– 9kg of liquid chemicals,
– 6m3 gases
– 8,610 liters of water
(Aaron Sachs, “Virtual Ecology,” World Watch, January/February 1999, p.16)
IT Support
• Bugs
• Adware
• Viruses
• Crashes
Verizon ads – It’s the network
Cars vs. Horse and Buggy
• Roads, highways, bridges, parking lots required
– Maintenance (potholes, rust, snowplowing)
• Bodily harm, property damage
– Insurance policies
• Automobile emissions
– Lung, eye, generalhealth problems
– Environmental Protection Agency, regulations,
bureaucracies
• Fuel infrastructure
Who pays for this apparent time saving device?
What does this time saving device cost us?
Cars
• Car repair
– Trained mechanic
– Shop computer for engine checking
• Computer needs maintenance and software
– State inspections/DMV/bureaucracy
• More gadgets – more complex car repair
• Commercials of course do not mention
thermodynamics – they show you the car
of your dreams!
Some other issues
• Time sapping VCR/DVRs
• George Foreman Grill
– too tough to clean
• Spam…
Spam
• Emails, resumes, advertisements
– easy to write
– send en-masse
• Monster.com
– send resumes to all jobs advertised
• Electronic searching of resumes now
required!
– No interview because of incorrect buzz-words
Mycourses- professors that send
more emails out
• In the past we had to contact you in class
– you had to listen in class!
• Now professors can send out mass
announcements that don’t get read
because you’re spending all your time
deleting other “spam”
• This is called entropy of the written word!
While we’re on the subject…
Proliferation of information
• Blogs, podcast, print media, tv, radio, web
media
• Importance of Google, Yahoo, etc – search
engines!
• Where can we make money as
entrepreneurs in the war against
entropy??
– Waste Management
– Data mining
– Surveys/statistics
What type of disorder exists in your
world?
Entropy in Education…
Entropy of education
•
•
•
•
Specialization
Separation of disciplines
Finding your niche
General science still has a huge part to
play.
So what’s the solution?
Can we win the war on entropy?
Let’s stay with education to think about what we can do…
Practical philosophy
• High entropy lifestyle
– high production, consumption, obsolescence
– We’ll ultimately pay a high price
• Laws of thermodynamics can be used by
educators as a focal point for unification
of knowledge
• Solution – teach values that are in
conformity with the laws of nature
Let’s talk together about entropy
•
•
•
•
Not pollution
Not socioeconomic disorders
Not environmental concerns
Not global warming
• We can talk collectively (reporters,
politicians, parents, educators) about how
all of these problems are linked by entropy
Now, go clean your room…
Thank you for your attention.
Questions?