So far, he can't even recite the statement of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and say how it might apply to the greenhouse effect hypothesis. Most sixth graders could do that if asked.
"Admitting heat to be a form of energy, the second law asserts that it is impossible, by the unaided action of natural processes, to transform any part of the heat of a body into mechanical work, except by allowing heat to pass from that body into another at a lower temperature. Clausius, who first stated the principle of Carnot in a manner consistent with the true theory of heat, expresses this law as follows: -
It is impossible for a self-acting machine, unaided by any external agency, to convey heat from one body to another at a higher temperature."
"Thomson gives it a slightly different form: -"
"It is impossible, by means of inanimate material agency, to derive mechanical effect from any portion of matter by cooling it below the temperature of the coldest of the surrounding objects."
"And again, later on in The Theory of Heat (page 328), Maxwell has this to say:
One of the best established facts in thermodynamics is that it is impossible in a system enclosed in an envelope which permits neither change of volume nor passage of heat, and in which both the temperature and pressure are everywhere the same, to produce any inequality of temperature or of pressure without the expenditure of work.
A more modern statement of this classical second law may look more complicated, but means the same thing:
Processes in which the entropy of an isolated system would decrease do not occur, or, in every process taking place in an isolated system, the entropy of the system either increases or remains constant
That version of the 2nd law comes from the textbook An Introduction to Thermodynamics, the Kinetic Theory of Gases, and Statistical Mechanics (2nd edition), by Francis Weston Sears, Addison-Wesley, 1950, 1953, page 111 (Chapter 7, "the Second Law of Thermodynamics").
The phrase isolated system means that neither energy nor matter may enter or leave the system; it is an embodiment of the word "unaided" as used by Maxwell & Clausius. If the system is not isolated, then energy can get in, and so can "aid". Hence, isolation is required to uphold the restriction "unaided". The manner in which the "transition" is accomplished is irrelevant; all possible transitions are allowed."
"In the earlier paper On the Definition of Entropy, we already encouterd the equation that defines change in classical entropy, S = Q/T. The 2nd law contrains the change in entropy (S) so as to give us the fundamental equation for the 2nd law, in classical thermodynamics."
From
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
