![]() This is not to say, however, that particles can time travel. ![]() Superposition can affect not only position but also time. ![]() Certain interactions on very small time scales can, in fact, exist in a superposition of moving forward and backward through time simultaneously. Though superposition can theoretically manifest on the macroscopic level, the term is usually reserved for much smaller quanta, which can, for instance, exist in several places at once until directly observed, as proved in Thomas Young’s double slit experiment. In other words, quanta can exist in several states at once until they are directly “observed,” usually by laboratory apparatus. Quantum physics has several odd (and interesting) ramifications, the most famous of which being superposition. At current, this model is the most widely accepted. This interpretation of the world is directly at odds with classical physics, in which values like energy exist on a continuum. At the simplest level, quantum physics is the physics of systems whose energies exist in discrete units. Quanta are finite, discrete energy states, usually understood as being “packets” of energy, like photons. Quantum physics is the physics of quanta. However, this is simply not the case as usual, these classical laws break down at the quantum level. It therefore becomes easy to imagine that this must always hold true: that entropy increases continuously without bound. Thus, the entropy of the system increases, and no amount of time or dispersive processes will get the gas back in the cylinder. The number of microstates - in other words, the possible positions every gas particle can have - is lower for the macrostate of the gas in the cylinder than for the gas filling the entire room. As the gas cylinder empties, the room fills, and the gas itself disperses. Herein lies the reason why entropy must always increase. ‘Entropy,’ like the Second Law of Thermodynamics, is almost always given in poorly-defined, indefinite terms, like ‘the disorder of a system.’ Multiple microstates, which can describe the specific energies and arrangements of particles, can describe the same macrostate, such as the general distribution of particles and temperature of the system.īoltzmann’s entropy formula, as it came to be known, describes the possible changes to a given microstate with respect to its macroscopic properties that is, entropy is proportional to the number of microstates for a macrostate of the system. A macrostate describes the general state of a system, and a microstate describes the combination of all the states of the particles in the system. ![]() A system is closed if and only if there is no transfer of matter or energy from within the system to outside. To translate the above jargon, a system is simply a finite portion of space whose change over time is being studied. The exact formula (in classical physics) is S = k*ln(W), generally interpreted as “the number of microstates which have the same prescribed macroscopic properties” for a given closed system. In fact, Boltzmann was the first to quantify entropy with a singular formula, penning the first derivation for its value in 1872. However, he did not stop with such nebulous terminology. “Entropy,” like the second law of thermodynamics, is almost always given in poorly-defined, indefinite terms, like “the disorder of a system.” Indeed, Ludwig Boltzmann, one of the progenitors of chaos theory, originally defined entropy as the “amount of chaos” in a closed thermodynamic system. But what is entropy, and why must it always increase? ![]() Of the aforementioned, one of the most often quoted is the second law of thermodynamics, which is usually given as “entropy always increases,” or some variation thereof. these principles govern the known universe without exception. Newton’s laws of motion, Kirchhoff’s circuit laws, the laws of thermodynamics, etc. High school science class has a tendency to boil the universe down into a series of immutable laws. ![]()
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