law of thermodynamics
Noun
Meaning
(physics) a law governing the relations between states of energy in a closed system
Source: WordNetHypernyms
Hyponyms
Examples
The 2nd law of thermodynamics has the same degree of truth as the statement that if you throw a tumblerful of water into the sea, you cannot get the same tumblerful of water out again.
Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and the second law of thermodynamics.
The problem of time in physics and chemistry is closely related to the formulation of the second law of thermodynamics. Therefore another possible title of this lecture could have been: "the macroscopic and microscopic aspects of the second law of thermodynamics”.
Where did the second law of thermodynamics come from? ...The steam engine. ...The cosmos is not a steam engine.
Just like a computer, we must remember things in the order in which entropy increases. This makes the second law of thermodynamics almost trivial. Disorder increases with time because we measure time in the direction in which disorder increases. You can't have a safer bet than that!
A low entropy initial condition will, with overwhelmingly high probability, evolve into a higher entropy state: behavior consistent with the second law of thermodynamics is typical.