The Most Misunderstood Concept in Physics
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Published 2023-07-01
If you're looking for a molecular modeling kit, try Snatoms - a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically: snatoms.com
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A huge thank you to those who helped us understand different aspects of this complicated topic - Dr. Ashmeet Singh, Supriya Krishnamurthy, Dr. Jos Thijssen, Dr. Bijoy Bera, Dr. Timon Idema, Álvaro Bermejillo Seco and Dr. Misha Titov.
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References:
Carnot, S. (1824). Reflections on the motive power of heat: and on machines fitted to develop that power. - ve42.co/Carnot1890
Harnessing The True Power Of Atoms | Order And Disorder Documentaries, Spark via YouTube - ve42.co/OrderDisorder
A better description of entropy, Steve Mould via YouTube - ve42.co/Mould2016
Dugdale, J. S. (1996). Entropy and its physical meaning. CRC Press. - ve42.co/Dugdale1996
Schroeder, D. V. (1999). An introduction to thermal physics. - ve42.co/Schroeder2021
Fowler, M. Heat Engines: the Carnot Cycle, University of Virginia. - ve42.co/Fowler2023
Chandler, D.L. (2010). Explained: The Carnot Limit, MIT News - ve42.co/Chandler2010
Entropy, Wikipedia - ve42.co/EntropyWiki
Clausius, R. (1867). The mechanical theory of heat. Van Voorst. - ve42.co/Clausius1867
What is entropy? TED-Ed via YouTube - ve42.co/Phillips2017
Thijssen, J. (2018) Lecture Notes Statistical Physics, TU Delft.
Schneider, E. D., & Kay, J. J. (1994). Life as a manifestation of the second law of thermodynamics. Mathematical and computer modelling, 19(6-8), 25-48. - ve42.co/Schneider1994
Lineweaver, C. H., & Egan, C. A. (2008). Life, gravity and the second law of thermodynamics. Physics of Life Reviews, 5(4), 225-242. - ve42.co/Lineweaver2008
Michaelian, K. (2012). HESS Opinions" Biological catalysis of the hydrological cycle: life's thermodynamic function". Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 16(8), 2629-2645. - ve42.co/Michaelian2012
England, J. L. (2013). Statistical physics of self-replication. The Journal of chemical physics, 139(12), 09B623_1. - ve42.co/England2013
England, J. L. (2015). Dissipative adaptation in driven self-assembly. Nature nanotechnology, 10(11), 919-923. - ve42.co/England2015
Wolchover, N. (2014). A New Physics Theory of Life, Quantamagazine - ve42.co/Wolchover2014
Lineweaver, C. H. (2013). The entropy of the universe and the maximum entropy production principle. In Beyond the Second Law: Entropy Production and Non-equilibrium Systems (pp. 415-427). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - ve42.co/LineweaverEntropy
Bekenstein, J.D. (1972). Black holes and the second law. Lett. Nuovo Cimento 4, 737–740. - ve42.co/Bekenstein1972
Carroll, S.M. (2022). The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion. Penguin Publishing Group. - ve42.co/Carroll2022
Black hole thermodynamics, Wikipedia - ve42.co/BlackHoleTD
Cosmology and the arrow of time: Sean Carroll at TEDxCaltech, TEDx Talks via YouTube - ve42.co/CarrollTEDx
Carroll, S. M. (2008). The cosmic origins of time’s arrow. Scientific American, 298(6), 48-57. - ve42.co/Carroll2008
The Passage of Time and the Meaning of Life | Sean Carroll (Talk + Q&A), Long Now Foundation via YouTube - ve42.co/CarrollLNF
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Special thanks to our Patreon supporters:
Emil Abu Milad, Tj Steyn, meg noah, Bernard McGee, KeyWestr, Amadeo Bee, TTST, Balkrishna Heroor, John H. Austin, Jr., john kiehl, Anton Ragin, Diffbot, Gnare, Dave Kircher, Burt Humburg, Blake Byers, Evgeny Skvortsov, Meekay, Bill Linder, Paul Peijzel, Josh Hibschman, Mac Malkawi, Juan Benet, Ubiquity Ventures, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Stephen Wilcox, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Michael Krugman, Sam Lutfi.
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Written by Casper Mebius, Derek Muller & Petr Lebedev
Edited by Trenton Oliver & Jamie MacLeod
Animated by Mike Radjabov, Ivy Tello, Fabio Albertelli and Jakub Misiek
Filmed by Derek Muller, Albert Leung & Raquel Nuno
Molecular collisions video by CSIRO's Data61 via YouTube: Simulation of air
Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images, Pond5 and by courtesy of NASA, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Goddard Flight Lab/ CI Lab, NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, HMI, and WMAP science teams. As well as the Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, B. Robertson, L. Hernquist
Music from Epidemic Sound & Jonny Hyman
Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, Emily Zhang, & Casper Mebius
All Comments (21)
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For those of you that haven’t taken a thermodynamics course yet, I don’t think you realize how incredibly helpful this video is lol
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the three laws of thermodynamics: 1. you can't win 2. you can't break even 3. you can't stop playing the game
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My brain hurts . But in an expansive way
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I am not being hyperbolic here... I am 10 minutes into this video and it is already more useful than my entire undergraduate thermodynamics class. Thank you for making this all make sense 5 years later.
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This has to be one of the best Veritasium episodes.
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I was a student of physics. Today at the age of 57 I understood what entropy actually means. Thank you.
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The way that this video builds out concepts and then extrapolates them into more complex contexts is so excellent.
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"What the sun gives us, is a steady stream of low entropy", is the best example for entropy. Thank you for making science more approachable, Derek!
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About 5 years ago discoved this show. At 69 years old your show now sends me daily down that wonderful rabbit hole... the world wide web gushing with information. I feel like I finally rediscovered the wonder and excitement of a being alive! And ready and armed to discover the unknown with childlike wonder... Thank you all for making life an incredible adventure... again!
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I am a PhD physicist. When I took my oral exam this was one of the questions I had to address. Fortunately I made it through, but my expertise has improved since the early 1980s. This was an outstanding presentation! After thinking about this over the years, I consider it to be the single most important principle in all of physics.
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I remember in my college statistical thermodynamics course the professor said we don't die, we just reach equilibrium.
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I really appreciate how the street segment of this isn't just shots of people who've been asked a complicated question and looking confused. It's been such a disease in mainly digital platform interviews for a long time. Pointless humiliation to make you feel like you've somehow legitimized what your video has to say by way of making people look stupid for not having intricate understanding of fields they don't study/work in. You're actually having an engaging discussion with them and matching their energy. It's stimulating and the insight is friendly. It's such a small part of the video yet is a powerful opening, pushing collective thinking and proper lighthearted discussion that stokes curiosity. Good on you.
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This has to be one of the best Veritasium episodes. I got goose bumps because of the beauty of the explanation. Science is so awe inspiring.
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The parallel you drew there with the arrow of time was quite surprising and truly fascinating! Great videos, as always!
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This is quite possibly THE most BEAUTIFUL video I've ever seen. I always felt like I hadn't understood entropy, and this video explained it in such a way that I could understand and visualize. Thank you so much.
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It is incredible how you can explain complex topic in 20 minutes that everyone grab a basic concept of it. Love it. Keep it going.
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The effort to put this presentation together and for millions to view has used energy very effectively. Please spread out more heat like this over time.
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In 12th i don't know about entropy even i am hating thermodynamics but you made it very interesting for my upcoming jee adv thank you
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This video is eye opening, life changing, pp touching, etc.
