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0 sats \ 4 replies \ @didiplaywell 23 May \ parent \ on: Why physicists now question the fate of the Universe science
I'm adamant on thermal death. Thermodynamics have yet to fail me.
Yes, heat death seems to make the most intuitive sense to me too.
Didn't really understand the argument Sabine Hossenfelder made in a video where she explains why she does not believe in the 2nd law of thermodynamics. It's a bit philosophical (and quite out of character as she likes to sh*t on the usefulness or lack thereof of fundamental particle physics research).
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Thank you for pointing me to the video and the right minute where she goes to the point. Seeing that a classic enthusiastic holdish physics teacher haves 1.5M subscribers and her video on such a niche yet fundamental topic haves 1.1 views gives me years of life.
I fully agree with her, that's exactly the way I see it. "Thermal death" is the point where such new complex systems will emerge, and for every new system entropy "starts at zero" in the exact same physical sense and rigour in that every time a column of water decreases, that new level is the new "zero". I have that coupled as part of the reasoning (together with some other stuff I'm working on) that haves lead to the image I posted in my bio:
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Thermodynamics have yet to fail me.
What do you think lies beyond the universe? What is "nothing" but a different "nothing" than the vacuum of space? And why is this nothing attracting space into it?
Does this nothing adhere to thermodynamics? Isn't the pure exsistence of the something expanding into the nothing kinda not thermodynamics like?
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Interesting questions! :)
To start, there is nothing such as "attractions", a term which is used within physics only in an informal manner. All forces, even field forces, are "pushing". That's exactly the way "suction" works with air vacuums for example. They don't exert "suction", but push material with their blades to another place, so to generate a void that the atmosphere itself fills due to it's own pressure (entropy!). This is no different from the forces you can exert yourself: think about it, you can only push things, never "attract" them.
So, in your words, "nothing can't attract nothing", which holds true regardless of the many interpretations of the words.
Absolutely everything, even nothing, adheres to the fundamental laws of thermodynamics, an absolute power of our knowledge that never stops to amaze me, which secretly relies in the fact that the laws of thermodynamics can't be defined in an absolute form but are always interpreted for every specific context.
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