Need help to get started on thermodynamics essay

[nossren]

Hello,

As part of the examination of my thermodynamics course I have been given about a month to write an essay on a topic of my choice. The second law/entropy has been very interesting to learn about over the last few months and I would like to do more of a mathematical study of the phenomenon. "Entropy" is a bit too general though, I would like to study more specific scenarios/systems, but I can't come up with any good ones.

If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to share! :)

(I'm a first-year undergraduate, by the way.)

 

[jedishrfu]

how about something related to maxwells demon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell's_demon

Like maybe you could compare and contrast osmosis to Maxwell's demon.

 

[nossren]

how about something related to maxwells demon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell's_demon

Like maybe you could compare and contrast osmosis to Maxwell's demon.

Never heard of osmosis before. Read a little about it and it sounds interesting. Do you know of any books/sites/papers that covers osmosis from a physical point of view?

 

[TheAustrian]

You could also try writing about the Thermodynamics of Black holes, your teacher will probably be quite impressed if you can write a good essay on it ;)

 

[nossren]

You could also try writing about the Thermodynamics of Black holes, your teacher will probably be quite impressed if you can write a good essay on it ;)

Sounds of course really interesting, but I don't want to take up something too big with several exams next month.. :p

 

[TheAustrian]

Alternatively something less taxing would be that you can write about similarities between Thermodynamics and the Economy, there are plenty of freely available research papers to be found, even just by googling around. Thermoeconomics (yes there really is such a thing) is quite a fascinating emerging subject

 

[nossren]

Alternatively something less taxing would be that you can write about similarities between Thermodynamics and the Economy, there are plenty of freely available research papers to be found, even just by googling around. Thermoeconomics (yes there really is such a thing) is quite a fascinating emerging subject

Economy isn't really my cup of tea. Thanks for the suggestions, though.

 

[TheAustrian]

Did you manage to decide on something

 

[nossren]

Did you manage to decide on something

Still undecided. At the moment I'm looking for some material on osmosis. Unless I find something more interesting I'll probably go with it. Still open for suggestions if you've got anything else!

 

[Enigman]

Relation of the second law with the arrow of time?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_(arrow_of_time)