The Oil Drum: Canada | In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!

160 comments on In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!

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Gail the Actuary on December 30, 2008 - 11:28am

Thanks for a helpful article. This is a subject most of us don't think about very often. One particular comment I found helpful was

One point that is often misunderstood is the role of the equation E = mc2. This is usually taken to refer to a conversion of matter into energy, but the reality is simpler. Energy has mass, and the equation tells you how much. No matter what conversions take place in a isolated system, its total energy (and hence mass) remains constant.

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msbpodcast on December 30, 2008 - 3:40pm

But what about black holes? :-)

Is the gravitational pull exerted coming from outside the Schwarzschild radius or from within (but nothing can escape from within.)

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DIYer on December 30, 2008 - 5:11pm

It comes from the curvature of spacetime around the Schwarzchild radius. Though the matter of whether or not anything escapes is still somewhat open, the curvature should also generate blackbody radiation proportional to the curvature (smaller radius ≡ more curvature).

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