gslack
Senior Member
- Mar 26, 2010
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thought experiments using basic principles are the best way to understand anything without getting bogged down in extraneous complexities.
why do you consider it a failed experiment?
It was a violation of the 2nd law of thermodynamics. A poster named Gord, among others, disproved spencer's claims and one couldn't help but notice that spencer didn't attempt a rebuttal. In the end, he was unable to adequately defend his experiment. Also, the experiment takes place in a perfect vaccum (as opposed to the open atmosphere) and that, in and of itself takes it out of the realm of reality and makes it a pointless exercise.
As A non-scientist. I see one problem.. Maybe its my nature to notice the obvious... But the second plate shouldn't cause the first plate to get hotter, the heat source sets the temperature of it. The second plate is an insulator forcing more heat retention in the first.. The first plate will get hotter because less or slower heat loss causing a build up of heat energy. But if the first plate is at maximum temperature the heat source produces it will not get hotter than its source.
its a logic test... he is associating heat retention due to an added insulator with an increase in heat energy. Maybe I dont have all the terms or scientific jargon to give this a proper explanation, but in essence this is a logic test. All he did was switch a concept and use misleading terms to confound the simplicity of it all. Everyone was arguing his methods and convection, etc. but no one asked the simple thing..
The temp of the first plate will not go beyond that allowed by its heat source. Adding the second plate slows the heat loss, but that does not constitute more heat due to the second plate.
WTH? is it really that easy to distract smart people?