Entropy

THIS ARTICLE attempts to remove some of the mystery about entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, so that the lay man may understand how this law legislates against evolution. It also legislates against man's making perfect use of his energy supply, and has a great deal to say about the orderly decay and degeneration of living substances. . .

THIS ARTICLE attempts to remove some of the mystery about entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, so that the lay man may understand how this law legislates against evolution. It also legislates against man's making perfect use of his energy supply, and has a great deal to say about the orderly decay and degeneration of living substances.

For this reason many creation scientists have gone so far as to suggest that entropy is God's curse upon a sinful world and that the second law of thermodynamics was not in existence when man lived in Eden.

This statement has unnecessarily alienated some scientists from the creation viewpoint. One is also appalled to consider an environment without the second law. This author has concluded that entropy and the second law of thermodynamics must be considered an other one of the wonderful consistencies of God's creation.

What is entropy? Entropy is a concept that was developed along with other theories of thermodynamics during the emergence of practical steam engines. It became common knowledge that a good engine was one that made efficient use of energy, but that often large quantities of energy become use less. Entropy was discovered as a measure of the uselessness of this energy, and therefore became a powerful factor for studying means of improving the efficiency of an engine.

The scientific definition of energy is the ability to do work. Work is also precisely defined, and since it is a product of energy (and can be converted back into energy), it is measured in the same units (or dimensions) of energy. One of many such dimensions or units is the foot-pound. This is the work expended in raising a one-pound object one foot. If I lift a one-pound weight to a three-foot table, I must expend three foot pounds of energy to do three foot pounds of work on the weight. Now the weight, sitting on the table, possesses this three foot pounds of energy. If I now push it off the table, it will expend this energy by doing three foot pounds of work on the floor, perhaps by denting the floor.

First Law of Thermodynamics

It is useful to note that we have started an endless chain of events where the energy is transformed into work, back into energy, back into work, and so on. The most fundamental of all physical laws is hereby illustrated, the so-called First Law of Thermodynamics, or the law of the conservation of energy, that says energy cannot be either created or destroyed, but is rather transformed into other forms, the net quantity remaining constant.

A nuclear explosion illustrates that matter can also be considered another form of energy. However, it takes very special conditions to convert between matter and energy. Most special energy trans formations require very special devices or conditions. You press the starter button, for example, and unless the carburetor and choke give the right mixture, unless the battery delivers the right voltage, unless the points, plugs, and coil are in the right condition to spark, the raw gas passes through into the exhaust pipe without doing anything. I can't think of a more universal example to illustrate the point that specialized energy transformations require very special conditions to cause the reaction.

Sunlight energy falling on green leaves causes them to pick up carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground, and combine into sugar, providing, of course, that this highly complex leaf mechanism is working properly. This energy can be released later if the sugar is burned, the energy leaving in the form of heat as the sugar is converted by the burning process back into carbon dioxide and water vapor.

A device for transforming from one type of energy to another is called an engine. You recognized the automobile engine in the example above. Dr. A. E. Wilder Smith has called the leaf mechanism a metabolic engine, because it uses the living metabolic process to operate. 1

Serves a Useful Purpose

The concept of entropy serves another useful purpose when one is attempting to devise a new complex engine that performs a useful function through the interchange of energy. An example might be the gaseous diffusion process developed for the isolation of fissionable uranium in the production of atomic power. In developing such a new process, the process engineer suggests a possible reaction, then attempts to determine the change in entropy of the subject material during the proposed process.

Then he will apply the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that the entropy of any system must rise in any natural process. If for his proposed reaction the entropy is found to increase, he knows that the proposed process can be expected to operate. If he can find the process in which the entropy rises the most, it will normally be the preferred process, which will take place most rapidly and efficiently.

The last statement makes the job of developing a process seem simple. However, determining the entropy of a system is not easy, and often is impossible. In such instances an approximation must suffice. In aiding one in making such approximations, many general relationships between entropy and other physical concepts have been found. We have noted that entropy measures uselessness of energy, or its inability to perform useful work.

The term degenerate energy has been applied to energy in this condition, although unavailable or irretrievable may be more descriptive terms. Unfortunately, the philosophers have read into the term degenerate a connotation of evil, or at least of decay. From this the second law has been accused of having no part in God's original perfect physical universe, has been called the law of degeneration and decay, and has been described as a part of the curse of sin or as the physical implementation of the curse itself. The second law deserves much better than that. The second law must be given a place of honor in God's original perfect creation, as physical perfection would demand the universal second law as well as many of the other fundamental laws.

Reason for Confusion

The reason for the confusion is that in its original classical form, the physical meaning of entropy was very obscure, really only defined mathematically. The change in entropy in a reaction could only be calculated by theoretically re storing the original state in a fictitious perfect or lossless process (the so-called thermodynamically reversible process). Since real substances depart so drastically from the ideal substances of these theoretical processes, the finding of a suitable ideal model for making the calculation is not easy.

The second law of thermodynamics is therefore obscure, and a masterly understanding of its meaning is only possessed by a relatively few specialists. (The author of this article is not among those masters.) However, it is possible for the layman to obtain a rather keen insight into the basic meaning of entropy and the second law without a working knowledge of the science of thermodynamics by noting some more recent discoveries about entropy.

Thermodynamics is normally taught in the same sequence in which it was discovered. Since the more basic knowledge was dis covered later, the subject is taught backwards and appears much more confusing than is necessary.

Key to Understanding

Bolzmann, who died in 1906, gave us the key to understanding entropy and the second law. In the derivation of the laws of thermodynamics by the method of statistical mechanics,2 entropy was discovered to be equivalent to the logarithm of the probability! We can then in a qualitative way equate entropy and probability. Now we may state the second law in a simple but truly fundamental way: Natural events follow the laws of probability.

We have not suddenly found a way to help the process engineer. He has known this all along and still has the formidable task of finding the probability of a process (measuring the change in entropy). But we should give the layman a new insight with this statement of the second law. This is truly a universal law, and its application to thermodynamics is a narrow special case.

"Natural processes are always accompanied by a rise in entropy" has the equivalent "Natural processes progress from one state to another of greater probability." "The probable is likely to happen and the more probable is more likely to happen, whereas the improbable is not likely to happen," is an accurate although possibly inelegant way of stating the second law.

Application of the second law involves determining what is probable. The laws of probability are simple, reasonable, and supported by myriads of human observations. These must be recognized as a necessary adjunct to the second law, and the source from which it derives its authority.

The classical second law should not be the one commonly learned, but should be relegated to the museum and replaced with the universal statement: "All processes proceed naturally to a state of higher probability." If such were done, the reduction in con fusion would be considerable. The classical statement refers to natural processes and leaves an open question as to processes other than natural, whatever they may be.

Does the second law hold for living organisms? Cannot the second law be broken in an isolated point but compensated elsewhere in the system? The universal second law applies to all systems at all points and at all times! It is prob able for a fertilized human cell in the environment of the womb to grow into a human baby, and so under the second law it does. It is improbable for it to grow into a rabbit, and so it does not. It is also probable for it to age and die, and under the same second law it does so. The probability is not 100 per cent for the egg to live to term and birth, so less than 100 per cent do so. The probability is 100 per cent that it will eventually die, and all do so.

An iron object exposed to the elements will rust at least on earth. This may not be so on some other planet having a small amount of water and a hydrogen atmosphere. On that planet, be cause the probability is for rust to change to bright iron, the second law will require bright iron from rust, just as under the same law in the refinery the iron is reduced from ore (rust) to metal, since the same conditions and probabilities exist.

Complex protein molecules, the building blocks of life, are produced in test tubes. Through careful contrivance and through a sequence of many steps, the scientist produces the environment in which each stage of the molecule development becomes probable, and it happens. The second law demands it.

Without the trained scientist and his contrivances, the probability that the first step may happen is great enough so that under the second law it occurs on occasion. The probability that the second step may occur before the first has decayed is so small that it cannot be expected within any proposed time frame. The next one hundred steps? Impossible!

An engine is a device that makes a certain reaction probable. It could be a test tube containing certain reagents and a catalyst and raised to a certain temperature, or it may be a steam engine or a diesel engine. In every case, it must be precisely implemented in order to function, i.e., it must have a degree of complexity sufficient to the task. Recall that special energy transformations require very special devices to make them occur. A few gallons of diesel fuel spilled on the ground and ignited will flame and give off heat. However, poured into a nearby truck it could have done several ton-miles of work.

It is not probable that fuel oil, simply ignited, will convert its energy to mechanical work. But when burned in a diesel engine, it is highly probable that a certain amount of the energy will be so converted. The same second law holds in both cases and the probable will happen.

So the second law demands the probable, and the probability is determined by the relationship between a substance and its environment, i.e., whether or not a specific engine exists.

Basic Ingredient Is Information

A most valuable insight is achieved by noting that the basic ingredient of an engine is information. The configuration of the engine bears the information of the desired result and contains in formation on the properties of the working substances, the fuel or the product. The working parts transmit information, such as the cam and points which signal the spark plug that the height of the compression stroke has occurred, or the float ball in the tank of a flush toilet which conveys information to the water valve that the reservoir is full.

In some engines the information can be changed. A hi-fi is designed to feed music to the speakers, but the record contains the specific information as to the music content. The womb contains within its configuration the in formation that a placenta and umbilical cord are required, and how to construct them; but the information that the infant should have his father's nose and quick temper is contained in the genetic codes of the genes supplied by the father.

Please note carefully the relationship between entropy, prob ability, information, and the second law of thermodynamics. With these concepts clearly in mind, it is safe for us amateurs in thermodynamics to recall the more commonly made statements on entropy without causing confusion. In summary, entropy is a measure of the unavailability of energy to do useful work. The second law says that this will increase in any reaction. If one measures the entropy change in an oil refinery, one notes that a great deal of energy is consumed and made unavailable even though some highly specialized fuel (gasoline) is produced, which is more energycapable (low entropy) than the raw petroleum. This low-entropy gasoline is collected in a small vessel, whereas elsewhere heavy oils, asphalt, and other waste is collected. Thus, the total entropy change for the system is an increase.

As we better come to understand entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, we can readily recognize the complete scientific impossibility of either generation of life or evolution in the light of what we learn about this universal law.

(To be continued)


1. A. E. Wilder Smith, The Creation of Life (Wheaton, 111.: Harold Shaw, 1970).

2. Margenau and G. M. Murphy, The Mathematics of Physics and Chemistry (New York: D. Von Nostrand Co., 1943), p. 435.


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July 1975

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