Encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 7:01 AM, John Gordon <gordon at panix.com> wrote:
> In <mailman.2317.1342730879.4697.python-list at python.org> Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed at ix.netcom.com> writes:
>
>> > Sure it terminates...If you don't run out of RAM to represent the
>> > number "i" in question, there's also this "heat death of the
>> > universe" limit I keep hearing about ;-)
>> >
>>       Since the current evidence indicates the universe will just keep
>> expanding, it's more of a "deep freeze death..."
>
> Heat death means *lack* of heat.

The second law of thermodynamics states that energy tends to go from
higher states to lower, with heat being the very lowest. It's possible
to do work using (say) kinetic energy, and in the process, some of
that energy becomes heat. It's also possible to do work with any
difference in temperature (eg Stirling engines), so the state of the
universe in which it's no longer possible to do any work will be one
in which all energy is heat and everything's at the same temperature.
That doesn't mean a lack of heat; in fact, it implies that there'll be
rather more heat than there now is, because we currently have a whole
lot of chemical energy available to be used.

But in any case, that's a looooooooong way off...

ChrisA