Abstract
“E. M. C.” calls attention to the fact that if trees do not grow into seeds they do grow seeds. This and other cases of reproduction are no doubt cases of reproducing the original condition, but Prof. Ostwald would rightly refuse to recognise them as cases of reversion to the original condition in the dynamical sense. In the case of a dynamical reversal the flow of energy is reversed. In order to have a case the reverse of the growth of a tree, it would be necessary to have a tree which radiated heat back to the sun in the reverse direction to the flow which at present takes place from the sun to the tree. Otherwise Prof. Ostwald would rightly deny that it was a genuine case of dynamical reversion. It was on account of this complication involved in Prof. Ostwald's example that I cited the very much more simple cases of irreversible thermodynamic operations, such as friction and flow of heat from hot to cold. To cite the very complex organic cases of irreversible operations instead of the simple ones, is only to cloud the question with complexity.
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FITZGERALD, G. Ostwald's Energetics. Nature 53, 487 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/053487c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/053487c0
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