Cultural Assimilation: It is the Zeroth Law

There are several laws of thermodynamics, all of which have applications across the various scientific fields.  These laws also have deep philosophical implications, with the second law leading the charge in this regard.  I have already written two articles describing the first law (energy balance).  I will soon cover the depths of the second law, but I feel the need to discuss the most fundamental law beforehand.  Strangely enough, there is a law that comes before the first law.

 

The zeroth law of thermodynamics states that if two systems are in thermal equilibrium with an external system, then they are also in thermal equilibrium with one another.  Thermal equilibrium means that heat is not being exchanged between two systems.  When two systems having different temperatures come into contact with one another, they will inevitably experience heat transfer.  Once thermal conduction is complete, the collective system will arrive in thermal equilibrium.

The Relativity of Religion

On June 30, 1905, Albert Einstein proposed that the Universe worked much different than the way anyone alive had supposed it did.  In short, Einstein’s theory of special relativity claims that space and time are not absolute quantities, but are rather malleable, relative scales of measurement.  This astonishing statement, which has not been disproven in the 105 years that have passed since its inception, should boggle your mind unless you have been aware of it for some time.  As I tell my Modern Physics students, if special relativity does not disturb you to the core the first time you hear it, it is because you did not really hear it.  The theory, which has attained law status, goes against everything we observe in our day to day lives.  For this reason, special relativity, which shows that classical physics only applies perfectly to relatively stationary objects, went unnoticed for so long. 

It should be noted that Einstein did not notice that time dilates for two objects moving at relative speeds, he just had a strange intuition that light was special, and wished to understand it better.  His journey towards this understanding required a certain leap of faith.  When Einstein was on this historic path of discovery, he told his friends that he wanted to get inside the head of God, to which they replied, “Could you tell him to pick my 6/49 numbers?"