Does anyone agree that entropy can be reversed without additional energy?

Question

I know the internet says no. I know all educated physicists and engineers say no. I know the second "law" of thermodynamics says no. I also have studied maxwells demon and its complications. What I want to know is if you agree with my scenario....

A box of air holds nitrogen at standard temperature pressure. No energy enters or leaves the box. The energy in the box is at maximum entropy (well mixed) with no hot or cold spots.

Now at any given time in this box, 2 molecules of nitrogen will be passing each other. The difference in their velocities is a given amount of mechanical energy. If an instrument was made small enough via nano technology this energy could be captured. After a great length of time, the energy received by this device would out weigh the amount of energy used to make the device. And thus decreasing the entropy of the universe, without a net addition of energy.

Criticism and Opinions appreciated, Thanks to all.

Answer 1

I forget where I saw this, but you are describing a gas particle "gate" that could intuitively create energy and decrease entropy from nothing. Unfortunately, I saw a proof somewhere that the energy it would take to run the machine would exactly account for the increased energy and decreased entropy. In other words, the energy it takes to run any kind of machine that makes decisions requires a finite amount of energy itself.

In short, any technique to decrease entropy in a system without adding energy requires some kind of intelligence or decision-making, and this intelligence requires a certain amount of energy itself which at least offsets any entropy decrease.

On the other hand, it is completely possible to have a system decrease its entropy WITHOUT any energy input or intelligence of any kind. If you wait long enough, eventually all the gas molecules in a box will, by chance, move in the same direction, and the entropy of the gas will suddenly drop. Unfortunately, you would have to wait several billion times the age of the universe to experience such a thing...

Answer 2

You say you've studied Maxwell's Demon, but apparently it didn't take. This experiment requires computation of which molecules to extract energy from and when. The computational power required for the person/demon/computer doing the computation exceeds the mechanical energy you will be able to extract.

Answer 3

Your energy has to come from somewhere. When you gather energy from the energy difference of two sources, you take energy from the source. By capturing the energy you are talking about, you reduce the energy in those particles.

Besides, what powers your energy capturing machine? By running it, you are introducing energy to the system. Unless you are suggesting you can manufacture energy to power your machine and export energy as well. That's called a perpetual motion machine, and they won't even look at your designs down at the patent office.

The laws of thermodynamics say quite clearly:

1. You can't win,
2. You can't even break even, and
3. You can't opt out of the game.