ABSTRACT
While the first law of thermodynamics has some interesting mysteries, which are overcome using the powerful ‘‘after-minus-before’’ principle, energy concepts are familiar to us in science. The next important topic is all around us and taken for granted as a part of life, but most of us do not know it can be made quantitative. It is the principle we sometimes call ‘‘Murphy’s law’’ related to the natural tendency of disorder to increase. If you open a brand new deck of cards and drop them from waist height, do you expect they will remain in order? Stack 10 coins heads up and drop them again from waist height; do you expect them to land all heads up? The answer is ‘‘no’’ to both questions, so what is going here? We are hinting strongly that while there is a natural tendency for energy to run ‘‘down hill,’’ there is another tendency in nature that tends to increase.
