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Explain the statement: “Cosmic rays continually decrease the entropy of the Earth on which they fall.” Why does this not contradict the second law of thermodynamics?

Explain the statement: “Cosmic rays continually decrease the entropy of the   Earth on which they fall.” Why does this  not contradict the second law of thermodynamics?

Grade:11

1 Answers

Aditi Chauhan
askIITians Faculty 396 Points
8 years ago
Energy is a conserved quantity, while entropy is a quantity that generally increases. Entropy is often associated with disorder and the second law of thermodynamics is sometimes cast as a statement that the disorder of a closed system always increases. Thus disorder of an isolated system never decreases.
The neutrinos which are associated with cosmic ray are generally utilized to stable the motion of the particle when it strikes the surface of earth. So, the Earth will be more ordered. Since entropy measure the degree of randomness or disorder, therefore the entropy of the Earth will be decreased. But at the same time, total entropy (environment + subsystem) of the system will increase. Therefore it does not violate the second law of thermodynamics

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