Blank Inside
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Things you can't trust
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Bad Advice
Suing for Slip and Fall in a Winter Wonderland
Monday, December 6, 2010
5 Things NOT to do before finals
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Taylor and Byrnes Present: Gourmet Coffee (NOT)

Friday, December 3, 2010
Katy Perry Explains Thermodynamics (What your chem teacher won't teach you)

Katy Perry, our national treasure, offers a nuanced understanding of thermodynamic principles in her song “Hot N Cold” (though her grammar needs improvement)
The premise of the song is that “you're hot then you're cold, You're in and you're out.” Here Katy Perry discusses the complexities of thermodynamic equilibrium. The object of interest was clearly placed in an environment colder than that of the original object. Thermodynamic equilibrium dictates that the warm object will decrease in temperature, transitioning from hot to cold. The energy, transferred as heat, is first “in” the warmer object, but it is increasingly “out” due to the transfer of energy as heat.
We then move on to this lyric: “The same energy Now's a dead battery.” Unfortunately, this is a flawed statement. While the warmer object now has less thermal energy, it is certainly not devoid of energy. Absolute zero is not achievable, thus this is a flawed analogy. This is perhaps the only weakness in Katy Perry’s scientific analysis.
The song ends on an important note. Katy reveals “I should know (I should know) you're not gonna change (change).” Here she references the idea of conservation of energy. The overall energy state of the environment will not change; the original amount of energy is simply redistributed, not decreased. This is a fundamental law of thermodynamics, and Katy exhibits her strong understanding of physics in incorporating this into her song. Well done.
Image credit: http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/18628061/Katy+Perry.png