• 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    16 days ago

    Yeah, I am reading this and I am like “how does this throw what we know of the second law outta whack? It’s just… A thought?”

    I mean, I could be too dumb to understand that they have evidence of this demon, but it sure doesn’t sound like that’s the case. It sounds exactly as you describe it lol

    • Derpenheim@lemmy.zip
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      16 days ago

      The point was that we hadn’t PROVEN it, and technically we still haven’t. It just holds so incredibly well that it most likely is true.

      So that big what if is just a reminder that it’s possible, even though we are like 99.99999% sure it isnt.

      • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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        16 days ago

        But it doesn’t hold incredibly well so it likely isn’t true.

        Imagine if we had a device that could create free energy. He look, I’ve violated thermodynamics. Physicists will need to scramble to refute my idea. My idea holds so well it must be true.

        • Derpenheim@lemmy.zip
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          16 days ago

          Yes, of course it doesn’t, that isn’t the point. The point is that we can’t PROVE entropy, but have put it as the linchpin of much of our theories of physics. It’s a criticism of “scientific certainty”, especially of his time. In his time, physics was considered a “complete science”, meaning nothing new could be discovered or proven.

          • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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            16 days ago

            I’m sorry, I completely misunderstood what you meant. I thought you were referring to Maxwell’s demon as certain because it hasn’t been disproven.

    • A_A@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      Let’s simplify this to a one-way door :

      • push it one way it looks you can’t pass
      • push it the other way, it swings open so you pass

      if the door is light enough and small enough, molecules would push effectively this door one way open but not the other way.
      Do you understand why it would work ?
      Do you understand why it doesn’t work ?