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Minesweeper thermodynamics

(oscarcunningham.com)
206 points robinhouston | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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kens ◴[] No.45123344[source]
The article discusses Boltzmann's formula exp(-E/kT). I was recently looking at the same formula in the context of semiconductors and I realized that Boltzmann's constant k is only needed because temperature uses bad units. If we measured temperature in energy instead of degrees, then Boltzmann's constant drops out. For instance, you could express room temperature as 25 meV (milli electron volts) or 2444 joules/mole and the constant disappears. Likewise, the constant in the ideal gas law disappears if you measure temperature as energy rather than degrees Kelvin. In other words, degrees Kelvin is a made-up unit that should be abandoned. (I'm not sure I believe this, but I don't see a flaw.)
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wasabi991011 ◴[] No.45123631[source]
This is true of any units. A lot of physicists say things like "set c=1", does that mean that meters/feet are bad units and we should instead be measuring our height in fractions of c? That sounds inconvenient to me.
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1. Ma8ee ◴[] No.45124297[source]
I just calculated that I’m about 6.24 nanolightseconds. A nanolightsecond is just over a foot, so at least Americans should easily get use to the unit.
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2. jabl ◴[] No.45124970[source]
Ah, but most natural unit systems don't measure time in seconds either. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_units