What is the second law of thermodynamics and why is it important?
–Hot in Havasu Dear Hot, It was a very hot and humid day when King John signed the Magna Carta on 15 June 1215. To console himself for the loss of royal prerogative to wantonly tax barons, he decreed the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It states that you can move heat from a hotter place to a colder place without doing work, but you need to work to move heat from a colder place to a hotter place.1 King J. thought that with the second law in place he wouldn’t have to worry about taking any heat from the Vikings up north, since the north was a colder place. Surprisingly, the second law of thermodynamics has stood the test of time and scientific scrutiny and, unlike the Magna Carta, the British Parliament cannot now repeal it. Application of the second law of thermodynamics helps explain the various ways in which engines transform heat into mechanical work, as for instance in the gasoline engine of a car or in a steam turbine. Efficiency measures based on the second law of thermodynamics t
