A Fresh Look at Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

TL;DR

This paper presents a non-technical, conceptual approach to the second law of thermodynamics, deriving entropy and related concepts solely from simple assumptions about adiabatic processes, independent of statistical mechanics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel derivation of entropy and the second law that does not rely on traditional concepts like heat or temperature, emphasizing a purely macroscopic and assumption-based approach.

Findings

Entropy can be derived without statistical mechanics

The second law is independent of statistical assumptions

Temperature and heat are emergent concepts from entropy

Abstract

This paper is a non-technical, informal presentation of our theory of the second law of thermodynamics as a law that is independent of statistical mechanics and that is derivable solely from certain simple assumptions about adiabatic processes for macroscopic systems. It is not necessary to assume a-priori concepts such as "heat", "hot and cold", "temperature". These are derivable from entropy, whose existence we derive from the basic assumptions. See cond-mat/9708200 and math-ph/9805005.