Save energy, without entropy

When we talk about saving energy what we usually mean is not wasting work. What we try to do when we design a process, is to use work as effectively as possible. It's hard to do that if we can't see it clearly. This paper illustrates how work can be seen (or calculated) without imposing entropy as a screen in front of it. We've all heard that the second law tells us that the entropy of the universe is increasing, and we are left with the feeling that the universe is ultimately headed for chaos, but receive little other information from this statement. A slightly more useful statement of the second law is the work potential of the universe is decreasing. However, this statement carries a needlessly negative ring. A simplified definition of the second law is: It takes work to change things. With these two corollaries: We can calculate the theoretical minimum work needed for a given change; and We can express the value of all changes in terms of work.