Managing the chaos

The science of Entropy and its impact on our lives

Chris CollisonAssistant 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?

1966 Pontiac Bonnevillewww.adclassix.com

1956 GE Dishwasherwww.adclassix.com

1949 Thor Washing Machinewww.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://www.frankgalasso.com/IMAGES/editorials/gas%20pump.jpg

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://travis.kroh.net/archives/003205.jpg&imgrefurl=http://travis.kroh.net/archives/2004_07.phtml&h=480&w=640&sz=80&tbnid=UcAhptm-pcUPHM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgas%2Bpump&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2

The Sun?

• But how can we store this solar energy?

http://images.google.com/images?q=sun+photo&hl=en&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2005-13,RNWE:en&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title

Energy storage

http://www.geokem.com/images/scans/Indonesian_coal_mine.jpghttp://energy.usgs.gov/factsheets/Coalbed/well.html

Energy “Consumption and Production”

• Stored energy in fossil fuels provides us with our energy needs.

And energy demand?

Data from www.doe.gov

Growing economies require more energy

• Energy demand is increasing

Data from www.doe.gov

Cost of Energy (Electricity)

What is our expenditure limited to?

What is our efficiency limited to?

Where does chaos come in?

Data from www.doe.gov

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

• Efficiency is not 100%• So how do we increase efficiency?

h

ch

in

out

T

TT

q

wEfficiency

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 Thomson1st 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 Clausius1822-1888

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

– 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”

WkS B ln

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

– 123 132– 231 213– 312 321

• 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

• For ordered thesis,S=0

• For disordered thesisS=1.2 x 10-20 JK-1mol-1

• But Entropy difference is so small?

WkS B ln

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?