Comment on Entropy and Temperature

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 02:39:57 GMT

Entropy is statistical laws. Thus, like statistics, it's in the mind.

I have a feeling you're confusing the map and the territory. Just because statistics (defined as a toolbox of methods for dealing with uncertainty) exists in the mind, there is no implication that uncertainty exists only in the mind as well. Half-life of a radioactive element is a statistical "thing" that exists in real life, not in the mind.

In the same way, phase changes of a material exist in the territory. You can usefully define temperature as a particular metric such that water turns into gas at 100 and turns into ice at zero. Granted, this approach has its limits but it does not seem to depend on being "in the mind".

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