🚀 go-pugleaf

john baez wrote:
> 
> In article <3369749D.3D21@midusa.net>, T. Haug <tjhaug@midusa.net> wrote:
> >John:
> >How do you define equilibrium?
> 
> In physics (and I'm posting from sci.physics), "equilibrium" is
> a condition in which a physical system remains in the same state
> as time passes.    According to this definition a sleeping dog is
> not in equilibrium, because while it might look static to the casual
> observer, it is actually breathing, metabolizing, pumping out heat
> into the environment, and so on, and eventually it will wake up
> and walk off.  By this definition, living systems are never in
> equilibrium; you only reach equilibrium when you die and completely
> decompose.
> No.  Equillibrium is a dynamic state.  For example, we take in air,
water, and nutrients, which become components of our bodies, which 
give off waste products.  That is equillibrium.  The body stays the
same, more or less, but the actual materials move through the system.

Pat