As we know, entropy must forever increase. This poses some interesting questions: what might happen when entropy reaches a maximum in the universe? Will it reach a maximum, or will gravity be able to suck all the degenerate matter back into a superatom, so that the Big Bang (or something like it) will happen all over again?
Something else to mull over.
Entropy and such.
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Alferd Packer
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Entropy and such.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance--that principle is contempt prior to investigation." -Herbert Spencer
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, III vi.
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, III vi.
Re: Entropy and such.
Or will the Universe eventually peter out into utterly boring 'heat death' as it eventually flattens out into a very dull sea of indistinguishable particles?Alferd Packer wrote:As we know, entropy must forever increase. This poses some interesting questions: what might happen when entropy reaches a maximum in the universe? Will it reach a maximum, or will gravity be able to suck all the degenerate matter back into a superatom, so that the Big Bang (or something like it) will happen all over again?
Something else to mull over.
How about we figure out how to get the planet to survive the next 100 years first. . .
(My characterisation of heat death is probably wrong. *shrug* I think the second comment indicates how much it matters to me
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Arthur_Tuxedo
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As the universe is expanding at a faster and faster rate, the total amount of entropy in the universe can steadily increase without the universe becoming more chaotic, in fact, it can become progressively less chaotic without violating the second law of thermodynamics. After all, near the beginning, the universe was just a superheated, gaseous ball of pandemonium, albeit a rather small one.
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Durandal
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Actually, entropy was shown to have been consumed on extremely small scales very recently through experiment.
A heat death will occur when all the energy in the universe is in the form of useless heat.
A heat death will occur when all the energy in the universe is in the form of useless heat.
Damien Sorresso
"Ever see what them computa bitchez do to numbas? It ain't natural. Numbas ain't supposed to be code, they supposed to quantify shit."
- The Onion
"Ever see what them computa bitchez do to numbas? It ain't natural. Numbas ain't supposed to be code, they supposed to quantify shit."
- The Onion
