Posted by John (207.150.66.32) on August 15, 2002 at 16:19:36:
Greetings fellow surface-dwellers! I had mentioned to Scott about a guy by the name of Toth that had his own theory of thermodynamics (I think he is into the cold fusion approach) whereby tension/pressure/force systems could interact under special circumstances, so that one system would be favored over another system in a way that the larger sytem would affect the smaller one without cancelling out the whole "collaboration". The lamb lays down with the Lion, kind of. I found some blurb on him on the web where the phrase "variational non-equilibrium" was used. Couldn't find any of his notes though. "Logically" speaking, this is one way that would seem to work. Otherwise you are stuck with the usual up/down, in/out, +2-2=0 scenario that people have been trying with no success for hundreds of years. His theory may apply to gravity and electrodynamic interactions as well as chemical "stuff". John