Re: Understanding Entropy
Entropy is generally considered to be an *emergent* property of matter - if you look closely enough at matter, it becomes impossible to see it (e.g. in single atom interactions). The source of the "entropy gradient" appears to be boundary conditions on the universe (e.g. the existence of the big bang + cosmic expansion). B ut is also as you say related to the existence of gravity, which is a major constructor of gradients from which energy can be derived -- in particular, stars. It's also related to nucleon binding energy following the curve it does, and the fact that the big bang created mainly the two lightest elements - thus allowing lots of scope for nuclear reactions to move the contents of the universe towards the stablest configurations. (This is all very fortuitous for us, or WAP related as the case may be.) However, contrariwise, black hole physics implies that entropy is a *fundamental* property of space-time (Hawking's famous result, the Beckenstein bound, etc). I don't know if this apparent dichotomy has been resolved. You comment about a universal collapse reversing sign is interesting, I can see that that could work as described - although I have no idea how or why the sign reversal would occur. -- 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 everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
Understanding Entropy
All, As I explain in my book on Reality, entropy states are not fundamental, as often assumed, because they depend on the spatial mix of prevailing forces. For example the maximum entropy state will be completely different in a positive gravitation universe than it would be in a negative gravitation universe, and at small scales it depends on the 3 other forces and how they are distributed. In our universe where there is an apparent mix of positive and negative (dark energy) gravitation and that mix seems to be changing it is unclear what the final maximum entropy state will be. When this is understood it can be applied to Penrose's question of why the initial entropy state of the big bang could have been the most unlikely possible minimal entropy state. We can offer a simple conjecture to explain why. Assume a big bounce universe in which the final previous state was a runaway attractive energy collapse into a universal black hole. Now if we assume that when this universal black hole collapses through its singularity that we get a white hole big bang in which gravitation instantly reverses from attractive to repulsive then we automatically get both the required minimal entropy state to start with (the maximal entropy state instantly reverses to the minimal entropy state) and we get the inflation of the early universe as well. Then over time the mix of +- gravitation changes to what it is today. Of course this is a speculative theory that requires proof but it does explain a lot of things quite well When the dependence of entropy states on force mix and distribution is understood it is also clear entropy has no innate connection to time and is certainly not the source of the arrow of time, as some have claimed. This should be obvious since there are areas of greatly varying amounts and changes of entropy and in no case does this have any effect on time whatsoever. Edgar -- 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 everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
