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It seems that magnets have some truly remarkable properties as applied within electric/energy applications. Do we have evidence that it is not possible to essen
by babyshake 5y ago
It seems that magnets have some truly remarkable properties as applied within electric/energy applications. Do we have evidence that it is not possible to essentially bypass certain laws of thermodynamics in the presence of magnetic fields?
- kurthr 5y agoThey're just creating bandgaps magnetically. I'm unsure exactly what the "breaking time reversability" refers to, but I don't think it looks like breaking any laws of thermo. Potentially, it could lead to superconductor-like effects near room temperature?
- pwr-electronics 5y agoNothing breaks the laws of thermodynamics, ever. I assume you're referring to how some popular science articles report things. That's just wordplay. Nothing is being bent, broken, or bypassed. Usually it just means they did something an ordinary homogeneous material couldn't do, for example. Which is genuinely interesting, even if it's not actually breaking physics.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoWith a generous interpretation, they can be said to break classical thermodynamics, since they quantum physics onto the table, most notably magnets can have negative temperature according to the statistical definition. Nothing that breaks physics at large, but would probably cause Ludwig Boltzmann a mild headache if he heard about it. It's still not going to allow you to make perpetual motion machines, though.
- pwr-electronics 5y agoWhy would you use a classical model to describe a quantum system? That's the kind of wordplay that those articles do, and almost identical to my example about materials. It's entertaining, but meaningless.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoWell in this case you absolutely can, the results just seem counter to our intuition about temperature. Negative temperature is a meaningful description of these types of systems.
- pwr-electronics 5y agoI'm trying to explain how articles often conflate "intuition" with "breaking physics", and you're making your argument by conflating them. We're having different conversations.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoWhere have I said anything about any of this breaking physics, other than repeatedly clarifying that it doesn't...?
- pwr-electronics 5y ago> With a generous interpretation, they can be said to break classical thermodynamics https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31008263 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31008263
- marginalia_nu 5y agoOperative word being classical. Quantum physics breaks classical physics. Stopped being controversial about a hundred years ago. Thw very same comment specifically states that physics itself is not broken.
- pwr-electronics 5y agoOk, so you're confirming that you're doing exactly what I said popular science articles often do.
- zasdffaa 5y ago> Do we have evidence that it is not possible to.. No, I don't think so, it's just that no-one's ever been able to construct a perpetual motion machine, so that inability is codified into a presumption that energy can't be created out of nothing (for example). That is an axiom AKA a law of thermodynamics. I guess there's no possible proof of it but feel free to try making your own PMM - you'll make a fortune if you succeed!