[Eoas-seminar] EOAS Colloquium on Friday, Sep. 11 at 3:00 PM

[eoas-seminar at lists.fsu.edu]

Hi all,

I am pleased to announce this coming Friday’s EOAS colloquium. Because the originally scheduled speaker is unable to give the colloquium, I decided, as the colloquium chair, to step in and entertain you without adding any burden to other faculty members. The work I will present addresses a problem that has been at the heart of statistical physics for the past 150 years, but most of the content is within the scope of college-level physics.

The following is the information about the colloquium:

Speaker: Dr. Zhaohua Wu, Florida State University

Title: Where Is the Second Law of Thermodynamics Hiding?— An Answer to a 150-Year Puzzle

Abstract:
The Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that heat always flows from hot to cold, that a shattered glass never reassembles itself, and that ink dropped into water spreads but never gathers back. This one-way nature of physical processes is what physicists call the "arrow of time.” But here lies a paradox that has troubled physicists for 150 years: the Newtonian mechanics governing molecular motion is perfectly time-symmetric. So how can a macroscopic world built from reversible microscopic motions be irreversible? This is Loschmidt's Paradox. The bridge between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds is the Boltzmann equation, whose construction requires a mathematical condition known as the Boltzmann-Grad (BG) limit. For more than 75 years, everyone interpreted this condition as a neutral technical assumption, unrelated to the Second Law. My work proves that interpretation is wrong. This condition actually defines the surface area of each small cell of gas. Because molecular motion is isotropic in three dimensions, a hotter cell has a larger surface area, and more molecules cross from the hotter cell into the cooler cell than in the opposite direction, carrying greater momentum and energy. The Second Law — heat flows from hot to cold — is not an additional postulate. It is the inevitable consequence of Newton's First Law: molecules in the absence of external forces continue their inertial motion. The Second Law was hiding inside the Boltzmann-Grad limit all along. Loschmidt's Paradox dissolves: the wrong question has been asked for 150 years. The framework connecting the microscopic to the macroscopic was never time-neutral to begin with. Newton's First Law, Newton's Second Law, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics are mutually compatible — and Newton's First Law is the bridge between them.

Time: 3:00 PM, Friday, September 18, 2026

Location: EOA 1044

Contact: Prof. Zhaohua Wu (zwu at fsu.edu)

A flyer for the colloquium is also attached.

Cheers,

Zhaohua



***************************************************************

Zhaohua Wu, Professor

Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science Building, Room 6041, and

Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Room 295

Florida State University

Tallahassee, Florida

zwu at fsu.edu<mailto:zwu at fsu.edu>

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