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How does the second law of thermodynamics affect our lives? Could we live without the second law of thermodynamics? What is the whole purpose of thermodynamics affecting our lives? I know this is a lot to take in but I would love this answer ASP.

Lance Kobs
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  • Your Q as it is can be taken as "do we really need to learn thermodynamics?". I am pretty sure you want to ask about thermodynamic features of life, instead. Big topic. Surely life constantly fights against the second law but the absence of the latter is difficult to be conceived. It seems that very fight that we call life. Related https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/453853/162193 very complicated topic even when biology is considered. To the best of my knowledge viruses are life for some authors and not living for others,... – Alchimista Jan 17 '19 at 10:08

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This is a big question; libraries full of books have been written on this subject. I will be brief here:

The laws of thermodynamics govern the processes by which energy is converted into heat, how heat gets transferred from place to place, and how heat gets converted into useful work than can, for example, drive machines like electric power plants, cars, and airplanes.

As such, our (western) lifestyle in 2019 is entirely dependent on thermodynamics and the mastery of this topic (among others, of course) is the objective of every engineering college that offers a mechanical engineering program.

niels nielsen
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We could all probably live quite well without knowing anything about any of the physical laws of nature, including the thermodynamic ones. After all, we have done so for many millenia.

However, this does mean without forgoing the practical sense of physical laws upon which we have built, over millenia, that towering edifice now known as modern science.

After all, where would you be, if you could not tell up from down; or that when you drop a stone, it falls; or that a fire burns, and if you add more wood to the fire, it will burn more.

We live, after all, in a physical world, and so we develop general rules that indicate how physical things behave; commonly, it's known as common-sense.

But we must also admit, that we live not in a premodern Arcadia, but in a modern technological world and hence technology must be taken account of and to take account of technology in an efficient way, means understanding principles, rather than merely details, and hence not only the principles of classical mechanics, but that too of thermodynamics.

What is the whole purpose of thermodynamics affecting all our lives?

Well, for one thing, have you heard of anthropogenic climate change engineered inadvertently by burning fossil fuels like there is no tommorow, when tommorow will surely come, and an accounting will have to be made?

Then it will be a question of who, and what did they know, and for how long did they know, and why did they hide what they did know, and why wasn't enough done earlier when all the evidence pointed towards actions that ought be taken, and the earlier, the better.

And not only that, but the engineering of new clean energy solutions which will rely on an advanced understanding of the principles of thermodynamics, amongst many other things - for example, the science of materials.

Mozibur Ullah
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