You can look at the formation of planets as a form of entropy. Life forming as a form of entropy.
Its just energy moving from a higher state to a lower state. And whenever that happens, a tiny amount of it is lost.
Over time, it adds up.
Comment on entropy
Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com 5 months ago
The thing about Entropy that I’m sure people have worked out but I just don’t know is how it is this scary cosmic horror yet it wasn’t able to stop the very ordered formation of planets and solar systems… Or undo that before the billions of years it took for humans to have the concept of it.
recklessengagement@lemmy.world 5 months ago
vaquedoso@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It’s not a ‘scary cosmic horror’, it’s not even a force. It’s a principle, a consequence of the second law of thermodynamics. In any isolated system, its energy will always strive towards balance, (eg, in a isolated room where one corner is hot and another cold, the temperature eventually will balance in a equilibrium). From this process of homogenization is where we derive the term entropy. Any homogeneous system has high entropy, for instance, as it is the tendency in any system for its components to be uniform. As a descriptor, one can measure in any system its level of entropy.
In regards to your question, entropy doesn’t have a will of its own, so it wouldn’t have set out to stop the formation of the solar system. But eventually, the solar system WILL reach a state of high entropy, once the sun (the one providing the energy that keeps the solar system going) runs out of fuel and goes supernovae
Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com 5 months ago
But isn’t that balance a more ordered state?
I’m sorry about any implied sentience, obviously Entropy isn’t a thing with an agenda. Though I do feel the need to point out that our sun is far too small to go supernova.
vaquedoso@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Think of a ball pit filled with balls of different colours. After a session of intense playing in it, presumably all the balls will have been mixed up. It’s now in a state of high entropy, where all of the balls are evenly distributed across the pit. But now, what if I wanted to enter the pit and sort the balls by colour? We would then have a corner of blue balls, a corner of red ball, etc. we have invested energy in the system and sorted the balls by colour, they are now ‘ordered’, and in a low entropy state. We know this state won’t last long though, once we get it and play the balls are gonna end up inevitably mixed up once again, the balls are going to end up in a high entropy equilibrium again.
Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com 5 months ago
That analogy makes more sense. Thanks for sticking with me.
I still don’t get the online people who talk about Entropy as if it is some force that dooms things, but I do better understand the basic physics I think. Thanks.