Humpty Dumpty Restored: When Disorder Lurches Into Order

[David Morris]

Framing the discussion as you do in terms of probabilities instead of laws 
is interesting, but the phenomenal difference in the "probable" behavior of 
matter and energy at sub-atomic level was the point of the article.  A 
difference in the effectiveness of forces (whatever they are) on sub-atomic 
matter which had not previously been observed.

DM

>From: MalignD at aol.com
>
>>http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/30/science/physical/30ENTR.html
>>
>>Not all the universe is falling apart all of the time.
>>
>>An experiment by scientists in Australia has shown that a small patch of 
>>disorder can momentarily lurch into order, akin to Humpty Dumpty's 
>>magically putting himself back together again.
>>
>>That would appear to violate the second law of thermodynamics, which 
>>states that entropy, a measure of disorder, rises inexorably unless an 
>>outside energy source maintains things in order. A billow of smoke always 
>>disperses, never contracts. >>
>
>Has it not long been the position of Hume-descended physicists that "laws," 
>even Newton's, are in fact probabilities?  That, just as pure chance will 
>allow for a run of 30 flipped coins all coming up heads, so would chance 
>operate elsewhere in nature.
>
>It was (in my understanding) Clerk Maxwell's point not just to confound 
>with the idea of the Demon (How do he do it?), but that, even without a 
>sorting demon, chance allows for the molecules to sort themselves into all 
>faster in one chamber, all slower in the other, thus increasing heat in the 
>first chamber without an expenditure of energy.  The second law of 
>thermodynamics is no less dependable for that, in that the probability for 
>such a random sorting is extremely low.  But it is not, finally, a "law," 
>fixed forever, unbreakable anywhere at any time.
>




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