Activities of Life and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Abstract

IN his last letter¹, Sir James Jeans writes: “It is a well-known, and indeed obvious, fact that entropy has different values according as it is measured with reference to atoms or molecules or other units.” If by entropy he means the absolute entropy of a given state of a system, his remark, though true, has no bearing whatever on the point at issue. If, on the other hand, he means the entropy change in some definite process, such as the sorting out of trucks, then we suggest that he is unique amongst physicists in holding this opinion.