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Old 04-October-2008, 10:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rcglinsk View Post
When I was in eleventh grade my physics teacher told me people had experimented with self-sustaining dynamos for decades and that they don't work because they violate the second law of thermodynamics. I've learned about thermodynamics since then and can see clearly how it relates to the idea.
Of course thermodynamics relates to a physical system. But I don't see why a self-sustaining dynamo would violate the second law. After all, it is not a system in equilibrium.


Quote:
Originally Posted by rcglinsk View Post
I've learned about the self sustaining dynamo theory, how it works in clouds and cores, but never seen any evidence that it's true.
Links have been provided in this thread.


Quote:
Originally Posted by rcglinsk View Post
No matter what experiment people run the process can't be recreated. Is that geophysics textbook going to tell me any different?
No, the experiments tell a different story.
Maybe you shouldn't jump to a conclusion only because a class of experiments is technically difficult to perform.
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