Entropy

Presentation by Tim McKay

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Irreversibility
• Entropy
• Order
• Structure
• Universe
• Physics

[mumicimo]

Wow. You had me at "All possible outcomes are equally probable." ;)

[BrunoTheQuestionable]

That statement is a bit out of context without the preceding introduction. Its not referring to the macrostates of the system.

[BADAWYY]

Thank you for this lesson.

[BrunoTheQuestionable]

I learnt a few things from it.

[2SeeriusMusic]

Fascinating

[nickharvey7]

Good video on a difficult subject! I am very interested in quantum physics and I noticed you have average position and average velocity is this because of the uncertainty principle of quantum physics? Is Entropy based on quantum Physics?

[AsHlEyBuRnHaM95]

I learnt a lot watching this, thank you. :)

[Kirkwhisper]

Thanks, friend, I will look into it.

[cusanusnicolas]

Thanx for an intelligent remark. modern science has become more dogmatic by far than it was in Gallileo's day, so raising legitimate questions is hardly worth the trouble. Not to say that I don't have a great deal of respect for statistical thermodynamics, only that there has been no adequate science beyond that. I recommend Bent's book because it has true intellectual value to a real scientist, but armchair know it alls won't appreciate it.

[Kirkwhisper]

cusanuscnicolas: I agree with you. If entropy is the measure of the disorder of a system and the universe is wearing down and will eventually die a heat death (Boltzman) then what is the origin of order to begin with? Unless there is something outside the physical (like the Creator God?) then how could the universe have ordered itself? Even more, how did matter create itself in light of the 1st Law which tells us that matter can neither be created nor destroyed?

[cusanusnicolas]

But you came close to describing the conditions required that would lead to reverse entropy. Really good job, actually. Recommended reading would be The Second Law, by Henry Bent. Super reference, but tough for those without a strong chemistry / physics background.

[cusanusnicolas]

A fair intro to statistical thermodynamics, but NOT a very complete explanation of entropy, the principle that every physical or chemical change results in the irreversible loss of free energy by dissipation into random thermal motion. A few nice examples would be very interesting to people, especially the Gibbs free energy equation. Cull the Big Bang. If the original Big Bang actually happened, which it didn't, that would have violated the 2nd law by providing an initially ordered state.

[jhbbunch]

Unfortunately evolution is not a random system. So it does not have random outputs. There is a reason why water vapor is lifted into the sky, and released as rain. There is a reason it is not randomly dispersed but comes down as rain. It is a system whose output is not random. That is what we mean by a system. It is a process that directs energy in some way to give a finite set of outputs from a finite set of inputs. Evolution is a system. Therefore, it will not give random outputs.

[christhemountain]

what do you mean?