Thread: The Second Law of Thermodynamics

So the second law of thermodynamics basically states that regardless of any situation, all energy will have excess left over useless energy. It will never be 100% efficient on the energy being produced. How does this law relate to the random things happening in the world slowly moving forward to what we call "Absolute Zero", Or nothingness. Can somebody help me out with this? Leave a smiley.

Thanks.

Not really a biology question. Moving to physics.

I think at least part of the answer is due to the expansion of the universe. There's more and more room to spread that energy over, which allows it to approach 0 without violating thermodynamics.

Originally Posted by curiouscat

How does this law relate to the random things happening in the world slowly moving forward to what we call "Absolute Zero", Or nothingness.

I don't know just how deliberate your use of the word nothingness was, so i may just be nit picking, but a system being at a temperature of zero kelvin is quite distinct from nothing. Zero kelvin is simply the temperature of a system in which kinetic motion of the particles in the system has ceased, ie they no longer undergo collisions, vibrate, rotate or exchange energy with the other particles. However the particles will still posses mass and some quantum mechanical principles have shown that the electrons in the particles will still occupy non-zero energy levels. (Unless you're in the gravitational field of a neutron star, but good luck getting that to 0K)