Thermodynamics

organized or low-entropy learning. These people make a conscientiouseffort to file the new information properly by relating it to their existingknowledge base and creating a solid information network in their minds. Onthe other hand, people who throw the information into their minds as theystudy, with no effort to secure it, may think they are learning. They arebound to discover otherwise when they need to locate the information, forexample, during a test. It is not easy to retrieve information from a databasethat is, in a sense, in the gas phase. Students who have blackouts duringtests should reexamine their study habits.A library with a good shelving and indexing system can be viewed as a lowentropylibrary because of the high level of organization. Likewise, a librarywith a poor shelving and indexing system can be viewed as a high-entropylibrary because of the high level of disorganization. A library with no indexingsystem is like no library, since a book is of no value if it cannot be found.Consider two identical buildings, each containing one million books. Inthe first building, the books are piled on top of each other, whereas in thesecond building they are highly organized, shelved, and indexed for easyreference. There is no doubt about which building a student will prefer to goto for checking out a certain book. Yet, some may argue from the first-lawpoint of view that these two buildings are equivalent since the mass andknowledge content of the two buildings are identical, despite the high levelof disorganization (entropy) in the first building. This example illustratesthat any realistic comparisons should involve the second-law point of view.Two textbooks that seem to be identical because both cover basically thesame topics and present the same information may actually be very differentdepending on how they cover the topics. After all, two seemingly identicalcars are not so identical if one goes only half as many miles as the other oneon the same amount of fuel. Likewise, two seemingly identical books arenot so identical if it takes twice as long to learn a topic from one of them asit does from the other. Thus, comparisons made on the basis of the first lawonly may be highly misleading.Having a disorganized (high-entropy) army is like having no army at all.It is no coincidence that the command centers of any armed forces areamong the primary targets during a war. One army that consists of 10 divisionsis 10 times more powerful than 10 armies each consisting of a singledivision. Likewise, one country that consists of 10 states is more powerfulthan 10 countries, each consisting of a single state. The United States wouldnot be such a powerful country if there were 50 independent countries inits place instead of a single country with 50 states. The European Unionhas the potential to be a new economic and political superpower. The oldcliché “divide and conquer” can be rephrased as “increase the entropy andconquer.”We know that mechanical friction is always accompanied by entropygeneration, and thus reduced performance. We can generalize this to dailylife: friction in the workplace with fellow workers is bound to generateentropy, and thus adversely affect performance (Fig. 7–27). It results inreduced productivity.We also know that unrestrained expansion (or explosion) and uncontrolledelectron exchange (chemical reactions) generate entropy and are highly irreversible.Likewise, unrestrained opening of the mouth to scatter angry wordsChapter 7 | 349FIGURE 7–27As in mechanical systems, friction inthe workplace is bound to generateentropy and reduce performance.© Vol. 26/PhotoDisc