Originally posted by DocMoreau
So what we are saying is that yes, with enough windmill generators, there is the potential to remove all the energy from the wind (and convert it to
electricity), but that it is the wind that would die, and not the energy itself.
Errrmm, look at it like this - if all the energy in the closed system (I've just declared the world a closed system!!... no energy will enter OR
leave - what we have now is it, %100, no more no less) is shared out equally - then no energy - or matter (matter requires energy to move) would
change form / move. So yep, eventually no wind, but in my closed world I think wind would take a long time to stop - you got to wait for the oceans
to stop first, then the geological activity - and finally the last little breath of the last little dodo.
Then yes eventually the wind would stop, the sea's would stop, the fires would stop, the animals and the plants would stop.
The mud slides and the glaciers would stop, after the building have fallen down the mountins will begin to fall down... One day the entire surface of
the Earth (my closed system) will be level - nothing can fall any lower, nothing can roll down hill.
All the chemical reactions and physical interactions that will EVER take place have now happened - the Earth is a very boring place by this time. No
temperature change at all - that would mean energy being moved, every thing is uniform heat, no sound of course, that is energy.
All the metaphorical ripples from the pond have gone - the pond is still.
All energy has reached equilibrium.
Second law: The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.
This is the most depressing law in Physics..
So on that note I lift my decree that the Earth is a closed system ~ one onto it's self and I allow the glorious influence of the universe to 'mix
it up some'

- a reprieve, of sorts, for the planet - for we have now still in a closed system (the Universe) - that, according to the 2nd law one
day also reach equilibrium it's self.... And then we would want another closed system to inject some energy to mix this one up.
Of course none of this takes into account dark energy / matter.
Phew
[edit on 1/12/2008 by Now_Then]