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We present a simulation of a dripping faucet system. A new algorithm based on Lagrangian description is introduced. The shape of drop falling from a faucet obtained by the present algorithm agrees quite well with experimental observations. Long-term behavior of the simulation can reproduce period-one, period-two, intermittent and chaotic oscillations widely observed in experiments. Possible routes to chaos are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. (in press

Landauer discussed the minimum energy necessary for computation and stated that erasure of information is accompanied with kT ln 2/ bit of heat generation. We reconsider this problem on the basis of Clausius's equation defining the thermodynamic entropy. We show that the erasing process, involving a transition from a nonergodic to an ergodic state, is irreversible and accompanied with k ln 2/bit of entropy generation, while the heat generation occurs in a writing process. The inverse of the erasing process corresponds to spontaneous symmetry breaking from an ergodic to a nonergodic state, which induces a decrease(!) in thermodynamic entropy. Our theory is examined by a simulation of a binary device described by a Langevin equation. We argue that the so-called residual entropy of symmetry broken states, such as in ice, is not a thermodynamic quantity, even if it might be called "information entropy." (c) 2001 American Institute of Physics.

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