Reading Up On Thermodynamics

"Thermodynamics — the branch of physics dealing with heat and its relation to other forms of energy — is profound stuff."

"Rooted in the engineering realities of engines and air conditioners, it also rises above these day-to-day realities to embrace heady, universal principles in complexity, order, chaos and organization. Thermodynamics touches everything that really matters in human life, including — most famously — the nature of time. It is profound and slippery."

"Some of this slipperiness showed up in responses to my physics and cities posts for the NPR Cities project. Some folks got angry with me because they claimed the second law is only relevent to closed systems. Some of the criticism comes from a misreading of what "closed" means in thermodynamics."