Posted 30 May 2009 · Report post If the second law of thermodynamics states that energy spontaneously disorganizes, my question is this:Doesn't matter, by virtue of gravity, spontaneously organize? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 30 May 2009 · Report post If the second law of thermodynamics states that energy spontaneously disorganizes, my question is this:Doesn't matter, by virtue of gravity, spontaneously organize?It's not "energy" that "disorganizes", but leaving that aside, thermodynamics deals with average behavior of large numbers of particles with a distribution of kinetic energy. If that kinetic energy dominates the gravitational potential energy then the particles will not be attracted into a static configuration, which is apparently what you mean by matter "organizing", but rather follow the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 23 Jan 2010 · Report post If the second law of thermodynamics states that energy spontaneously disorganizes, my question is this:Doesn't matter, by virtue of gravity, spontaneously organize?The 2LOT says that in a closed thermodynamic system entropy will tend toward a maximum. Bob Kolker Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
