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[Phys-l] Equilibrium



I know this isn't supposed to break down into a matter of definitions/ semantics etc. - but I gotta ask.
JD uses 'Equilibrium' as the Subject and 'explains' what he calls 'Thermal Equilibrium' so I have to 'assume' that Jack's reference to 'non-equilibrium' is related to the TINY number of things in A compared to the HUMONGOUS number of things in B. Is it this disparity of number that makes it 'non-equilibrium' in some sense??

I ask - because it may help me in formulating a serious 'entropy' question that I have been mulling for years - interest in which has been renewed by Leigh's recent comments on the shuffled card deck.

Thanks for any clarifications that might be forthcoming.

At 3:33 PM -0500 4/20/10, Jack Uretsky wrote:
Hi all-
To the extent that this is a non-equjilibrium situation,

<snip>

On Tue, 20 Apr 2010, John Denker wrote:

<snip>
>
> We let the system sit for a long time, so that it
> reaches its maximum entropy macrostate. This is what
> I call thermal equilibrium, although I don't want to
> argue about definitions.

<snip>