To: Right Wing Professor; Slingshot; Alamo-Girl
Conservation laws are obeyed whether or not systems are open or closed. An open system can exchange matter and energy with the surroundings, but the amount of matter and energy entering from the surroundings is exactly equal to the amount leaving. Thanks for the information, RWP! Very helpful. So how do we answer the question is the Universe in toto an open or a closed system? With what is it exhanging matter/energy? IOW, what is its "surroundings?"
706 posted on
04/20/2006 8:14:21 AM PDT by
betty boop
(The world of Appearance is Reality’s cloak -- "Nature loves to hide.")
To: betty boop
There's a respected conjecture that the sum of all matter and energy in the universe is zero.
709 posted on
04/20/2006 8:18:28 AM PDT by
js1138
(somewhere, some time ago, something happened, but whatever it was that happened wasn't evolution)
To: betty boop
So how do we answer the question is the Universe in toto an open or a closed system? The universe is by definition a closed system. If you call X the universe, and then find X is exchanging matter and/or energy with Y, then the universe is not X, but X+Y.
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