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Re: ENERGY WITH Q



On Fri, 26 Oct 2001, John S. Denker wrote:

At 07:56 AM 10/26/01 -0700, John Mallinckrodt wrote:
I can't think of any specific situations
in which knowing the "correct" absolute value of the entropy is
important. Can anybody suggest one?

What's wrong with the spin-glass example I mentioned the other day?

I do like the spin glass example because, as you say, it is easy
to calculate the absolute entropy. But I don't yet see why that
absolute value is *important*, that is, why one could not add an
arbitrary constant to it without changing any measurable
thermodynamic results.

John Mallinckrodt mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm