https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-03446-4
Letter to the Editor
You certainly know the second law of thermodynamics, Do you know its connection to other laws of physics and chemistry?
1
Laboratoire SCIQ, ESIEA, 9 Rue Vésale, 75225, Paris, France
2
IMMM, CNRS UMR 6283, Université du Mans, Ave. O. Messiaen, Le Mans, France
Received:
5
August
2022
Accepted:
29
October
2022
Published online:
9
November
2022
Since the discovery of the second law of thermodynamics, skeptics have never ceased to challenge the absolute validity of the law, leading to a situation where the claim of violation of the second law has almost become routine today. This situation is also a serious threat to the fundamental status of thermodynamics. In this work, we bring to light evidences to prove the absolute validity of the second law as a fundamental law of physics. For this purpose, we propose a short revisit of the history of the discovery of the second law in order to highlight the connection between the second law and the first law of energy conservation. We then demonstrate that the perpetual motion machine of the second kind also violate the first law of thermodynamics, albeit indirectly, contrary to the common belief. This result confirms the second law is an inviolable fundamental law of physics, just like the law of energy conservation. Denying one of these conjoined twin laws is to deny the other. Any presumed violation of the second law, even a probabilistic one, inevitably violates the laws of energy and mass conservation, and undermines all fundamental laws of physics and chemistry. We conclude by summarizing a perspective of the interpretation of the second law taking into account the multiplicity of paths of random motion.
Copyright comment Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
