Question

Two college roommates do not agree on the best way to handle the clutter piled up in your dorm room. Roommate 1 explains that chaos is inevitable, so why fight it? Roommate 2 counters that maintaining an organized environment makes life easier in many ways, and that chaos is not inevitable. What law of thermodynamics drives the thinking of Roommate 1? What thermodynamic argument can be used to support Roommate 2?

Answer 1

The Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that entropy or disorder increases over time in an isolated system, aligns with Roommate 1's view that chaos is inevitable. Roommate 2's view can be supported by the principle that inputting energy into the system, by performing work, can maintain lower entropy and order.

Step-by-step explanation:

The law of thermodynamics that Roommate 1 refers to is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that disorder, or entropy, naturally increases in an isolated system.

This explains why the roommate believes chaos is inevitable, as it is statistically more likely for a system to become more disordered over time without the input of energy.

On the other hand, Roommate 2 can argue that by inputting energy into the system, in this case by cleaning and organizing the room, they can maintain a state of lower entropy and more order.

The thermodynamic argument that supports Roommate 2 is the concept that work must be performed (which requires energy) to reduce entropy and maintain order, which aligns with the principles of the Second Law of Thermodynamics stating that the entropy of a system can decrease, but only at the expense of an increase in entropy outside the system.