On 12 November 2014 15:42, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 LizR <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Physical processes obey the laws of physics. The 2nd law isn't a law of >> physics. > > > The 2nd law is even more fundamental than a law of physics, it's more > like a law of logic; it's just the result of there being VASTLY more ways > to be disorganized (high entropy) than organized (low entropy). So however > a physical law changes a system, when it is done with it the system will > almost certainly be in a higher entropy state than it was before the > changes happened. >
Correct. The 2nd law is simply the result of statistics - a "law of logic" as you say. It should operate in (hypothetical) universes with all sorts of physical laws - however, for it to do so you need a mechanism that initialises the universe in a low entropy state, or a mechanism that keeps raising the maximum entropy a system can attain (I - and others - have suggested that the expansion of the universe is just such a mechanism). > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
