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by kgwgk
1515 days ago
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I never said it was unique to entropy. (And i still don’t understand if there some meaning that escapes me in calling entropy a “model”. Are temperature and pressure also “models” or is it unique to entropy?) If I have a system in thermal equilibrium with a heat bath and know the macrostate P,V,T I can calculate the energy of the system only as a probability distribution - it’s undefined. If I knew the state precisely I could calculate the exact energy of the system. If I define lycanthropy as “error in the determination of energy” it’s positive given the macrostate for the system in a heatbath and zero given the microstate of the system. Of course, given the microstate one can know the energy but can also pretend that the energy is still indeterminate. While the distribution of energies - and the whole thermodynamical model - may still be useful its meaning would change. It would no longer be the most complete description of the system that encodes what can be predicted about it. Of course if that was never the meaning for you, you’ll see no loss. But I thought we were talking about physics, not mathematics. The meaning of thermodynamics is a valid point of discussion. The interpretation of the second law remains controversial. I think this discussion has run its course - I may no longer reply even if you do. Thank’s again, it was interesting. |
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