Question. What if we take a small black hole (let the temperature be T=50000 Kelvin - the radiation of photons with low entropy) and we send particles or photons with high entropy into this hole. It turns out that the black hole will absorb high entropy and radiate low. In other words, the energy from the cold will go to the hot?
@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist8 His name was not Jesus. Your church couldn't even not lie about his name. Your church doesn't care about the truth, they only care about if you believe in what they want you to believe in. They don't even believe in it themselves. Most pick and choose to believe in the things they want, and just ignore the rest. You can even ask one christian something, then another, and then another and you will get three different answers but they all swear their answer is "the" truth.
The value of your channel is immeasurable. Thanks for making such great educational videos. You return more value to humanity than what you take. You are an "digital entropy anomaly" thank you!
I just finished a college level course on thermodynamics. We spent a full day and several homework problems on a carnot heat engine, and it made no sense to me at all. Now it makes sense. Thank you.
@kwokshseeBy energy, he meant pockets of energy inside those said particles within a system are clumped which means having less freedom to spread out, essentially meaning higher freedom, he used liberal language for more people to understand, if you're so knowledgeable, make a video explaining what's wrong! This reply makes you look dumb.
@@MrCmon113 A stream of low entropy just basically means "high energy clumped together or fundamental particles with less freedom of movement", which then we spread out increasing our entropy. The entropy of the sun increases as we receive energy!
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.
@@tariqtech5078 The form of the evidence you just gave is known as the "Watchmaker's Analogy." It's very commonly used to argue for intelligent design but it is pseudoscientific; debunked by evolution which, yes, is powered by entropy. I'd recommend learning about it, maybe starting with the Wikipedia entry, if you are at all interested in expanding your worldview - a practice that would make the world a better place if more people weren't afraid to do.
The thing about one photon from the sun turning into several spreading out in all directions answered a long standing question for me - how to explain the way the sun “powers” life on earth in terms of entropy. Thanks!
If watching a Veritasium video leads to me watching a SteveMould video with black holes instead of another Veritasium video with black holes; could that be considered a Spool Paradox or another example of a big photon converting into many small photons? Jokes aside, I love your videos and I lm glad you left a comment.
@@garrysekelli6776why not? If a high energy photon is absorbed, cant it can be later emitted in different levels? In a way that all the photons' energy when aaded up will be equal to the original high energy photon
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!
Is it scary to be 69 and figure out a new passion? Do you feel like you might miss out on new discoveries or maybe not have the time to learn as much as you want? I am 21 and i am already worried about living in a time where I will probably miss out on many discoveries and on many radical societal changes. What's your philoshopy on this?
@@alexgeo2615 we live at a very fortunate moment in time, where many exciting discoveries are currently happening, and many essential developments have already been made that make our quality of life excellent. Every time period will have its challenges and its frontiers to explore. My perspective is, don't worry about what you might miss out, go dive in and enjoy what there is. There are an inexhaustible number of exciting and world-improving things we can work on, passions we can enjoy, etc. Make the most of the time you have, that will minimize regret.
I JUST studied this topic in depth for my IB HL Physics class, feels so great to recognize and understand so many of these examples! The history behind the Carnot cycle is also really cool to know
Why did we integrate the work done by the piston and on the piston ( 6:54 ) . Is it applying the second law of thermodynamics(entrophy) meaning which formula? Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm just curious!
@@elrohifilmon2291 It is using the formula for work= force x displacement since the amount of work done on the piston is almost equal to the amount of heat produced due to work being high-grade energy.
@@astro18965 Okay thank you for your explanation It really helped!!! I think i should go look into my advanced physics studies I'm lingering in the past in grade 9 -10 physics , tho i really hate the idea of integration, just the concept behind definite integrals, area, volume etc.... Overall thank you very much.
Derek's ability to break down ideas of this level of complexity and explain them in a way that almost everyone can understand and appreciate is exactly what we need more in the world. It's education at it's finest. I applaud you.
Yes Exactly... I have a question though... if we assume the world to go on for an infinite amount of seconds... at a certain point everything can suddenly do the improbable thing and go towards low entropy right? Based on what Boltzmann said, going toward lower entropy is extremely improbable, but if time goes on for infinity, every improbable thing will happen once... so after the heat death of the Universe, there will come a time when the big bang appears again...
@@runtimeterror1358you're right! At a certain point few things can suddenly do the improbable things which was least likely, but there's a larger basket what happening around. "If after heat death, all the least probable things will happen then it's also true to say all the most probable things will also happen" So in a way the the whole scnerio remains same... And after heat death there'll be nothing that will happen.
@@runtimeterror1358Very interesting comment!! After heat death, there'll be no concept of time I guess. Think about it, no entropy, no cause/effect, absolute zero temperature & no particle moves, no space-time curvature, no concept of time, nothing!!!!
PhD physicist and engineer here. This brought an incredibly enlightening perspective for me. I must say, the concept of entropy is not a simple one... Many physicist, also as mentioned in the video, battle to fully understand the concept. This brought it all together for me. I'm having a rough night just deeply thinking about entropy because the concept is far more elegant than i ever imagined it. Thank you for this insanely amazing work.
Hello. Keep thinking about. I am a doctor, and from many years ago ,the entropy discovery change my life and the perspective on human beeing, their reaction, the cause of boring, cause of the war, cause of love, cause of friendship, cause of happiness. Everything relates with entropy. Even why we sleep, the way substantia nigra in our brains work is a entropy function machine.
My favorite "joke" that my PhD advisor told me was, "Even thermodynamic professors don't understand entropy." It is one of those things that people like to sum up with, "chaos" but that doesn't really relay the idea well when it comes to what energy is doing and why we use certain terms in the equations.
I asked chatgpt about this same thing and it's surprising that it's almost the same as this video 😮 Prompt- Try to relate entropy with the sun, earth and universe, if possible include philosophy also. Ans- In the context of the sun, earth, and the universe, we can explore the concept of entropy from different perspectives, including scientific and philosophical aspects. From a scientific standpoint, entropy plays a role in understanding the natural processes and evolution of systems. The sun is a massive source of energy that radiates heat and light into space. This energy flows from a high-energy state (the sun) to a lower-energy state (the surroundings). As this energy disperses and spreads out, it leads to an increase in entropy. On Earth, entropy is related to the concept of thermodynamic equilibrium. Over time, energy and matter tend to spread out, seeking a state of equilibrium or balance. For example, consider the water cycle, where water evaporates from the surface, condenses into clouds, and eventually precipitates back to the surface. This cyclic process involves the transfer and transformation of energy, but it also leads to an increase in entropy as energy is dissipated and distributed. In the broader context of the universe, the concept of entropy is linked to the idea of the arrow of time and the second law of thermodynamics. The second law states that in a closed system, the entropy tends to increase over time, meaning that disorder or randomness tends to prevail. This idea is often associated with the observation that systems naturally evolve from states of low entropy (high organization) to states of high entropy (disorder). From a philosophical perspective, entropy can be seen as a metaphor for the nature of existence and the impermanence of order. It aligns with the philosophical concept of change, decay, and the fleeting nature of things. The increase of entropy symbolizes the inevitability of the passage of time, the dissolution of structure, and the constant transformation of the universe. In summary, entropy is a fundamental concept that relates to the flow of energy, the tendency of systems to move towards equilibrium, and the increase of disorder or randomness over time. It has scientific implications in understanding natural processes and is intertwined with philosophical ideas about the nature of existence and the passage of time.
@@Entropic_Alloy lol yeah I think they don't really know 😂. wish this video available when I was a student. but it's never too late because it can be useful in my current work also
this is DEFINITELY one of the best video on youtube. 25:06 is my favorite part. like everyone NEED to hear that. let's maximize our precious low entropy moment.
I'm a chemical engineer, and I always hated the way they defined Entropy to us in textbooks or how teachers would explain it to us. They say Entropy is disorder or randomness which never really tells you what it is. I never completely understood the concept but watching this now after all those years it looks like yes it was so obvious, it is disorder now I get it why it is defined asdisorder.
I just had a Thermodynamics course in university. I must say, you explained about 2 lectures worth of information in 7 minutes, and you used the rest of the time to make thermodynamics from an engineers nightmare to a scientists interest. Well done!
And then you still have people like my boomer dad who won't even take a look at anything on TH-cam because "Internet bad" but will happily watch TV all day long lol
I've been there and know what you mean. Courses would have been so much easier -- and FUN -- if our courses were taught by people like Derek, Tom Hanks, Matt O'Dowd, Joe Hanson, and the like.
My physic/mechanics teacher always told me, that the principle of entropy is best explained by a desk that gets more and more messy by time and that one must put energy into it to clean it up.
You made a serious mistake! The Earth, being an open system and receiving energy from the sun, will still not be able to generate life. Energy by itself is destructive to life. For life to exist, highly complex machinery (nanomachines) is needed to convert energy into useful work for the cell. It is not just any form of energy, it has to be specific. You have to explain the nanomachines, which the laws of nature cannot create. For example, the steam train and a machine that uses thermal energy for work. Everyone who defends the origin of life by the laws of nature makes this mistake.
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.
I did my PhD in biophysics and I love that you mentioned life when talking about entropy. This always confuses people until they realize you’re not a closed system
Im no student, just a hobbyist interested in all things science, but damn the whole shine a light on random atoms and getting life was mind-blowing for me. THIS is the argument I wish more OoL scientists explained. Abiogenisis in a quote.
A few years back, I was involved in a debate on evolution. A creationist claimed that evolution violated the 2nd law of thermodynamics and therefore evolution was impossible. I pointed out that the 2nd law only applies to closed systems, and that life on Earth is an open system getting energy from the sun. End of that line of debate.
I am a young physics student at the University of Trieste, Italy. This video made me emotional, thinking about concepts like this explained in this way makes me shiver. Truly congratulations, it's thanks to videos like these that people get passionate about physics
I’m only only a formally uneducated intern at a mechanical engineering company and this video made me emotional. I should really take a thermodynamics class or something.
OMG! I first came across entropy in some early Michael Moorcock books. I was fascinated by the concept. Now, 50 years later, I understand it thanks to this video.
I've been studying aerospace engineering now for 2.5 years and when I say that this channel is an absolute blessing, probably all STEM students here would agree. The way you can not just explain a certain topic, but - much more importantly - kind of contextualise and explain how the topic integrates into the bigger picture of how the world works in a more general fashion makes this channel an essential tool for us. This video was probably the best example. By far. Funnily enough, I'm writing the thermodynamics exam in about two months. All the names you mentioned rung a bell immediately. Before the video, I knew what entropy was in the sense of "state of disorder" and how it's used in formulas, but after this video, I get the sense that I'm starting to internalise and being able to handle the topic. This video didn't teach me more about thermodynamics, instead it taught me about how everything outside of thermodynamics is affected and intertwined with thermodynamics. For me, I see it this way: at university, nature is divided into subjects and this channel undoes those divisions, brings those subjects together and "reintegrates" them into nature. So please never stop making these videos, because this channel fulfills an important function for many of us.
My dream is become a aero space engineer . Now I am studying final year high secondary.. can you explain about the importance aerospace engineering like about work what we actually do it and we studied about the universe and space or not and what are subject covered in aerospace engineering.. please 😊
I've said for years now, that the way we teach science (US); splitting them into different subjects, does our understanding of the principles a disservice. Sure, it's easy to understand subjects when compartmentalized, but it doesn't allow for lateral and connective understanding of all scientific subjects.
I've literally been wondering for years why the universe started with low entropy when it was so uniform. Wouldn't say I have a clear understanding now but at least I'm not completely in the dark anymore. Thank you so much for explaining this ♥️
We might think in terms of energy-mass conversion too. First, think that when the universe was young, we had a lot of mass in sub-particles untangled together. Then, because of gravity and strong force, they started mending with each other. But this process transformed mass into energy, due to E = mc². In a nutshell, we might think like this: the existence of the universe and life and all that MATTER is the transformation of mass aka things into energy aka nothingness.
Because God started the process without any flaw in His actions, in essence because He is supremely "ordered," His creation of the universe(a slow and careful process) eventually came under the influence of Entropy because that is the only scientific explanation for how that energy eventually spread out and subsided. life forms are the same, we did not start with lifeless ooze, this would violate Entropy by going from chaos to order, so we know this is completely impossible. From God, the original life was created, complex and orderly, and formulated to evolve and change based on a strict set of orderly rules and no random chance or chaos. There is no conceivable way for the universe to create itself because it violates Entropy and the laws governing Conservation of energy/mass/momentum/etc, and besides, accidents have no rules, and if it has no rules then it does not exist in science.
My professor for gen chem 1 and 2 taught us to think of entropy in this way. Reading the comments of others about how they were never taught to think of entropy like this, I'm once again reminded of how wonderful of a professor he was.
I had a science teacher back in grade school that set me up to think about things one step outside of what we immediately observe and I have treasured his insight my whole life.
I had a teacher called Dr Ollerenshaw in the UK. He was the most silly person I've ever met! He had "fun tie fridays" and "two tie tuesdays" that he'd normally wear one around his head 😆. My fave teacher hands down
After doing 6 years of doing gradutate process thromodynamics and then a Ph.D. in Statistical Physics, I wish he made this video a bit earlier. This is one of the most beautiful ways of explaining entropy. And the visuals are simply breathtaking.
The best synthesis ever in the best way I needed it presented. This might just be my favourite video of all the ones you've ever made or any of the physics channels I follow come to think of it. Thanks a mil.
I am a physicist and so I already knew almost all the info in this video (except for some details on the ratio of photons to and from the earth, and I'm not strong on the Hawking radiation) but nonetheless I found this video EXHILARATING. Your way to travel from a question to an explanation is poetic and a true form of art. I love everything you do. And the imagery and the choice of music were the coronation of it all, so congratulations to the editing team as well. Forever one of the best channels in the whole tube.
Yea, same here. Knew all the details pretty much, but damn. He's making pure art of videos. I am always perplexed by his absolute genius ways of making videos.
Me too. The way he explains a semester of physics in layman´s terms, while still being rigorous and interesting for an expert, is just extremely impressive. He is just such an inspiring science communicator.
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.
My professor explained it slightly differently, but it still made sense. Entropy is disorder and energy is only useful when it is organized in to packets with differential. Differential is key, without it there can be no energy transfer and therefore no use of the energy.
This video is only useful to me now that I have taken multiple classes regarding thermodynamic principles. I remember when this first came out I was familiar with entropy and didn't know the small little complexities that exist inside the concept so when you casually drop these little nuggets like "absolute zero is 100% efficient" along with the visual, it made me smile at that depiction. I always knew from the formulas and from images that 100% efficiency would exist in that scenario theoretically however it is impossible, but with the visual representation that you provided it made that concept sink much deeper into my understanding. I find that this video has much greater effect on someone that is already familiar with the topic and use it as a refresher/ supplementary learning. Thank you for the work you've put in!
@@zemsorg He actually does have a PhD from the University of Sydney in Physics Education. The point is, anyone who actually worked hard enough to get a PhD should be completely justified in bragging about it.
@@samwilson3329 Well PhD in Physics education and PhD in physics are two very very different things. But it doesn't require a PhD to understand the basic physics and few fundamental laws of the universe. Also it's not guaranteed that people who actually have PhD in physics understand it better than people who don't.
I have a degree in chemical engineering .. so, I studied thermodynamics for years. This 20 min youtube video would have helped shortcircuit a year or two of struggling to understand the concept of entropy. The part about the early universe being uniform and evenly distributed, but low entropy, due to gravity -- was particularly mind-blowing. That was something that always bothered me about the concept of entropy, at universe-scale.
@@sangodkar121 Because gravity causes things to clump together but in the early universe things appear to be evenly spread, which is a very unlikely configuration which means that it will shift out of that configuration into a more likely one which is why it has low entropy because of that inevitably shift of states.
@@MrAwdseFrom what I can understand, you are implying that there is gravity on the early stage of the universe, is that right? If so, then why don't all matters on the universe clump together into one because of gravity, instead of expanding as to how the universe is now? Sorry, I am very, VERY confused on that part 😖
=== You need an ordered universe first. The energy from the big bang a first cause event originated in a compact ordered state. Not by accident. Now, entropy is at work. Already the universe is 13 + or - billions years old. The creation of elements took a few billion years to achieve. Now a terraformed earth doesn't just happen and also requires stepped progress. Not by accident peoples. Your brain that is an organic computer no way could have come from dirt. Impossible. Thinking abilities and consciousness are because of complex formulaic chemical equations also not by accident. No way the laws of physics or chemistry could allow and cause your brain, an organic computer to happen from dirt. Impossible ==== Evolution = Self Assembling Atoms = Impossible ====
As a mechanical engineering undergraduate, I would thank you for making this video explanation of entropy. And based on what I have seen on TH-cam, this is the absolute best explanation of the Carnot Cycle.
Did I understand correctly that the way energy moves between the bars is the same general concept of time moving forward? The states where entropy decreases are so extremely unlikely that it can't actually happen, same as the states where heat moves from cold to hot being too unlikely for them to happen? If so, that is mindblowing? Would that also mean that time travel is possible _in theory_ if we manage to reverse the increase in entropy?
@@cvbattum Well, we can say this in reverse. If (past) time travel would ever be possible in future, it would be accompanied by the decrease in entropy of the universe. Which ultimately leads to the reason why it won't ever be possible in the first place. 😅
There is this absolutely simple example to explain the increasing entropy of the universe: Consider a balloon inflated to say 20% of its full capacity. Now attach suction cups all over its surface and pull in all directions. The balloon would stretch, and as a consequence the entropy of the air molecules inside would increase, just the newly created volume inside would be filled by vacuum. The universe can be thought of in a similar way.
Hats off to the artist who draw Carnot's hair. From the front, but also the aerial shot of him writing with a feather. I don't think I've ever been impressed by animated hair until now.
As a chemical engineer who has done massive amounts of thermodynamics, kinetics, and fluid dynamics this my friend is the best explanation of everything. You taught me things in an easier sense and you brought in all my favs from the boltzman constant to Carnot heat engine. Thanks:)
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.
Very important, but like the video explains, very misunderstood. Even moreso than it or anyone here seems to talk about. Like all things, context is important, and a crucial piece of context in regards to not just entropy, but to countless scientific notions, is us: an entity and a force within the system that possesses increasingly meta level knowledge of the whole thing, allowing us exploit phenomena at our will. The idea of entropy doesn't ever seem to take into account an opposite force, a force not particularly pleased with entropy/disorder, a force that seems keen on pinning every other phenomena against it. That force is us. Our quest to build stronger and more efficient computers in essence makes them anti entropy machines, entropy annihilators. Using every universal law we can get our hands on to compress matter and energy down into ever increasingly small confines, in the name of some kind of order. So I guess the question is, what's stronger, entropy or anti-entropy. What's a more fundamental force? Order right, since things seem to progress from a more ordered state to a less ordered state. Entropy is merely reality stretching it's leg, it's a product of something much grander, a slave to a force much more fundamental. I was here in the very beginning, when all things were made, I am the universe looking back at itself.
@@PherPhurOverall, I do agree. As Kant said it: it's all phenomena within our minds. Jiddu puts it poetically: I am the world, and the world is me. Just to be a bit more precise, please note: entropy is not a force in any physical sense. It's pure math. Statistics tells us what is likely and given so many particles and atoms (80th power of ten or so!) math and probabilities seem to give us time and only what's likely to happen does indeed happen. But, you and I go after unlikely things like building computers and tech in general, and becoming more aware. And, that seems to be our Will, maybe a more conscious (less blind) version than Schopenhauer put it. And, it does rule, and will probably continue to do so until time is no more. And when we reach that timeless state, we are back at the beginning, the timeless state prior to the Big Bang. Penrose seems to hint at such a cyclic universe and believes that it is the beginnings of a falsifiable theory of everything, ama Creation.
I am wrestling with a lot of these ideas. I wrote out this longer question/thoughts so I wanted to post it here since you said you were a PhD physicist. Any response would be greatly appreciated. If entropy occurs in closed systems, does the fact of entropy prove our observable universe is a closed system? So much might not be argued, but then if both high and low entropy conditions are “equal” (probably not a helpful term for people who actually understand this stuff) then does our universe actually end in a “heat death” or is it just as true to say that our universe ends where it began, with the perfect conditions for a “new beginning”? Also not thinking of the expanding and contracting theory of the big bang. Watching Veritasium and his final analogy with the tea and milk made me wonder, “Why did the early universe begin this movement from low entropy to high entropy? And if both low and high entropy states are both devoid of the time arrow, then how can we know where we are in that story? Also, does the fact that in early conditions of the universe the symmetry of matter to antimatter was broken, does this demonstrate some sort of input from outside the system?” This is not an attempt at the cosmological proof for a god, I just do not understand yet. This outside the system idea could even be accounted for by the still very mysterious nature of higher dimensionality that I hear about from all these mathematicians. Im largely self taught when it comes to science so I am sure my thoughts are scattered. Sorry about that.
I am really surprised at how much praise this long and convoluted video has received. The true meaning and understanding is entropy is much simpler and all you have to do is take a few seconds to look up the definition of the word: “the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity. Entropy is the general trend of the universe toward death and disorder”. It is a simple concept to understand by just observing the leaves on a deciduous tree over the course of a year or by reading the poem Ozymandias - eventually everything runs out of energy and falls apart. It is a basic universal law.
This video literally summed up my last four years worth of lecture courses. It's like seeing your academic life flashing before your eyes, but with better animation.
That's how I feel when my s.o. talks to me about anything. At the end of being talked at nonstop for several minutes, I can clearly, completely and accurately sum the entire talk up into 1 sentence. Don't waste time. Most precious resource in existence to us. Just jump to the point😂
i hope he didnt say entropy every time he talks about entropy. it always confuses me everytime the word high and low entropy is mentioned. he should have used "spread of energy is low/high" or something.
@@zjpdarkblaze It was necessary for him to use that term, since everything is framed in terms of 'states'. An earlier state of time = low entropy; later = high entropy. Spread of energy is just more words to say same thing.
The analogy with the tea at the end is mind blowing for me. As an engineering student I knew that entropy caused the milk and tea to mix so spectacularly, but I never related it with our lives being in this spectacular state before heat death eventually happens. It takes the perfect knowledge and some beautiful articulation to explain such things!!! What a video!!!
It is also an absolutely perfect and instantaneous refutation of the old creationist argument that the emergence of life by natural selection supposedly violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
Interestingly this is the exact same example Sabine Hossenfelder used in her video about entropy 2 weeks ago. Overall the 2 videos are very similar 🤷♂️
I also learned a lot about entropy as a materials science student. A key piece that's been left out is that some entropy generating processes are fundamentally not reversible, and so they can't be used to generate work. Mixing milk and tea is a good example. When you mix milk and tea, the entropy increases quite a bit. However, it doesn't release heat, and you can't use the mixing of tea and milk to do work. If you wanted to separate the milk and tea however, you would need to do quite a bit of work. The point is a lot of entropy is being produced all the time even without the ability to do work. For me, the relevance is in creating alloys, and in refining ores or recycling metals. It takes a lot of chemical and heat energy to separate elements into pure forms. Then you combine them together in mixtures with various properties, but you don't get any of that energy back.
the tea and milk demonstration to show that complexity comes between low and high entropy was beautiful and made so much sense. the hot pool of matter at the beginning of the universe was not complex, neither will be the heat death, but in between we have the formation of beautiful stars and galaxies, just like the clouds of mixing tea and milk. amazing!
Both just a theory, though. Overall one that just ignores the real problem: what was/is outside that "hot pool of matter" and the universe - and again: where did it came from. It's not explanation, just as evolution doesn't explain how life came into existence in the first place, it just shows how life changes, not how "no life" became "life".
It took me years to wrap my head around the concept of Entropy. What helped me the most was studying the history of the concept. This video is an accurate summary of what entropy is.
My god….. The way you explained the Kelvin scale was just so effortlessly intuitive, simple, yet insanely informative. You are an absolute treasure to humanity.
The part where Hawking attempts to disprove Bekenstein but eventually ends up proving his theory leading to one of the best discoveries in Physics will always be a jaw dropping story for me! This is exactly why I took a degree in physics!
Fun fact with the rubiks cube metaphor: it eventually bottoms out on how unsolved a cube can be because the maximum distance a state can be from the solution is 20 moves. So once you reach 20, any move you make either maintains or decreases that number.
im a dropout with a 10th grade level education but i feel that videos like these keep me from letting my mind rot. understanding the world around you is so important and you're doing a great job teaching
I disagree. You have thousands of "really smart people" who just don't teach that well despite choosing this path. Geniuses even. He's special when it comes to these videos.
No human is smart, otherwise we would live in a perfect world...look at the mess, past, present and if God does not intervene the future is unimaginable. Only God is smart, agree ? Believe the ONLY gospel that saves today which is 1 Cor15 vs1-4 KJV Bible.
There are plenty brilliant men that can't teach. This is what happens when a talented teacher, along with a team of solid, educated and talented group of support staff create an educational video (with endless hours of time put into the project) .... this is teamwork, talents and time. No university professor could compare in a lecture. Impossible.
I still remember my first lecture on thermodynamics during my masters. My professor asked us do we know what entropy means, everyone said yes. He replied what you learned is wrong forget about it and started explaining about entropy for 30mins. In the end we understood that we really misunderstood what entropy is in our undergrad
Keep in mind that it requires the universe to be expanding or staying the same size for it to happen. There's still a chance that the universe isn't going to expand forever, and even in a state of heat death it may contract, pushing everything back together into a state of low probability. Given enough time, all probabilities will happen. I see no reason why this wouldn't also.
@@vanyel_etc8695given enough time, all mathematically possible things CAN happen. Not all mathematically possible things will happen, as the occurrence of one can and often does prevent the occurrence of another.
You should read Stephen Baxter. He wrote some amazing novels that cover the consequences of the heat death. I think the specific title was "Time", though his other notes are equally as good and cover other big cosmological subjects.
wow, before seeing this, I thought I understood entropy, and estimated that life decreases entropy (by concentrating energy); but with your explantion here, I've flipped my mind 180 degrees....as life grows, energy actually dissapates...increasing entropy. You truely are the best science communicator Derek, I hope you keep going with your channel, I've learned so much over the past few years, but this was the best, a eureka moment for me, not even Prof. Brian Cox's vid on entropy did it for me, but you have...keep of the great work mate
This is easily one of the best pieces of content I’ve ever witnessed. Engineering thermodynamics 1 was a fun class and I had a great professor, but it left me still wondering what entropy really was. This video so elegantly explained entropy, important universal concepts, and the history behind the names we read in textbooks. Absolutely beautiful.
A few problems: 1. Entropy has never been observed to reverse without deliberate intervention. This flies in the face of the ‘it can all happen itself given enough time and energy’ fallacy. 2. 19:09 - This is an especially egregious case of pseudo-intellectualism. It is quite frankly shocking that it is included as a credible statement. Just because life (while living) is compatible with the second law of thermodynamics. It does not address the so-far unexplained way life as a complex orderly system can arise in the presence of the second law; which is expressly hostile to such complexity arising, and expressly favorable to it decaying. Yes, life helps dissipate heat energy. But nothing here has spoken to how this dissipation (entropy) is anything other than extremely hostile to the arising of complex orderly systems such as life. This is like saying: “since petrol makes a car run, petrol explains how a car was created” 3. It is impossible that all energy from the sun is emitted back away from the earth. Some is converted into geological formations such as coal. And if you claim that that will get emitted one day when the earth explodes - then the entire question posed to the public at the start is ridiculously impractical. 4. 23:50 -Celestial bodies break up all the time. Comets have been filmed breaking up in space.
@@personal45281. Entropy has never been reversed for CLOSE systems. It's possible for it to reverse but as said in the video. The probability is next to 0. 2. He was making a hypothesis that the 2nd law of thermodynamics maybe the cause of life. Now we don't know if it's cause and effect or just correlation. But including this in the video isn't a huge issue, might not be entirely correct but something to ponder about nonetheless. 3. It was never stated that the energy is entirely emitted away from the earth. It was stated that Most of the energy is emitted/dispersed away from the earth while some is taken in to sustain life and other processes. 4. Again, you need to listen properly, he said that celestial bodies break up all the time and the reverse isn't possible. I hope your doubts are cleared.
@@kgv5179 1. no, read carefully: Entropy has NEVER been observed to reverse without deliberate intervention. Name a single observed, non-hypothetical instance of spontaneous entropy reversal without intervention from an designed method. Furthermore, the universe is a closed system. To say that the second law of thermodynamics does not permeate in a scalable manner across the universe is grade school level nonsense. 2. No it was not a hypotheses. It was an ignorant conclusion based on no data, and should be derided as such. 3. 17:17 he says the same amount gets emitted. Again false. Some becomes geological as coal. 4. 23:55 "we never see... a planet unmix into the cloud of dust and gas that made it up" - false. Comets sublimate into nothing. Stars supernova. Decay is everywhere. This is a slight of hand to try make entropy the opposite of decay, when in fact it is the greatest facilitator of decay.
Not necessarily true. The best way to explain entropic systems is in the form of clocks, watches, and wind-up toys that run down and stop when the energy in their spring or their battery is spent. That's the effect of entropy. 😊
@@jedcasillas5171it was only a part of it, you could understand this video with or without calculus. You’d miss out on some mathematical details, but the premise is still clear.
This video is a masterpiece. It´s by far the best explanation of entropy I´ve seen on youtube, going through the most important concepts in several semesters of physics, and it explains it both in simple layman´s terms, but also through the relevant equations, while giving them a graphical representation. It´s honestly really impressive science communication. And I love the old school Veritaseum interviews of random people, who express our own questions and confusion. Well done!
I remember learning about entropy in middle school. I had no idea what it is. Why is "chaos" a thing in physics. This video actually explained it to me.
@@feynman_QEDou have to be so boring and pedantic about it? In the world we live in not everyone should have deep and intimate understanding of every topic of science. Videos like this DO give actual knowledge to viewers, albeit on a surface level, but that surface level actually gives a lot of benefits. Specifically - widening persons world view, satisfying and at the same time encouraging very useful need for learning new things and also allowing person to engage in simple discussions about explained topics. It also definitely gives an ability to solve simple problems on this topic or explain it to someone else. There is rarely any need for an average Joe like me or you to know about topics like this in more detail, but if you would need it - videos like these are still useful because that surface level knowledge allows you to point yourself in the right direction for learning further. People being overconfident about their knowledge of topics have nothing to do with Popular Science, only with their own arrogance that they need to coreect themselves.
@@feynman_QEDwell I like being challenged by complicated ideas like these, dont really know what your suggesting, that they dumb down these videos, and oversimplify them to the point that they become inaccurate?
Hello Derek. When I was in high school I watched some of your videos, and you were part of the reason why I chose to study Physics. 5 years later, with a lot of effort, I graduated, but in the way I forgot that joy of wanting to know. These videos you're making recently remind me of that curiosity I had back then that drew me to physics, and why I use it as a compass to understand the universe in a philosophical level. Thank you for all the work through the years. I'm sure that like me, thousands of people have been inspired to get into Physics thanks to you.
Just remember, learning is one of the most enjoyable human activities - and unfortunately sometimes schools tend to beat the fun out of learning. Glad you're getting the fun back.
This man never stops to amaze me, to have not only the capacity to have this broad understanding of the physical world, but also have the social and verbal skills to be a grasping storyteller. I've been following you for years and you sir, are a modern day hero and nothing less. Well done!
In my first year in technical collage in Finland in 1977 we were lectured about the Carnot machine. I did not really get it, and I remember how it bothered me. I do now, what a relief, 47 years later. Thank you.
I studied aerospace engineering in college and went on to get my masters degree in biomedical engineering before going to medical school. I’ve been practicing Internal Medicine for 24 years. My last course in thermodynamics was approximately 30-35 years ago, and I haven’t even THOUGHT about thermodynamics and entropy since that time. But I can honestly say this was the single best explanation I’ve ever heard or seen in my lifetime. This was a truly EXCELLENT Veritassium video, Derek - probably one of your BEST! Thank you so much for your illuminating videos and all the work you do. I believe if everyone on earth would take a few minutes each day to watch your videos and to try to understand the nature of the universe, we would all be better off. The ignorance and sheer stupidity that exists in our world is probably our biggest problem as a civilization.
16:20 the introduction of the sun did not need to go that hard. I almost got goosebumps, lol. This was a beautifully done video and loved every second.
That is quite LITERALLY what I was thinking. I know next to nothing about physics and after watching this video I felt my IQ jump up about 100 points. LOL
I’m an HVAC operating engineer and I’m always so impressed how the process is based on a genius manipulation of core physics principles. Almost everything we do is based on using physics to manipulate things to our purposes.
I haven't looked it up or anything, but I've heard that HVAC is essentially transferring heat from one place to another...or making a massive group of atoms and molecules vibrate less via transferring their shakiness to another massive group of atoms/molecules somewhere eslse. What I don't get is how that transferring process is performed in a machine made out of stuff we can and do produce on a massive scale. I mean, I can heat up an ice cube with my hand to perform rudimentary HVAC stuff by just holding it for awhile...but how the hell do I make the ice cube even colder than it was via transferring its thermal energy someplace else somehow?
@@dakotadillon5981 Well you’re already some of the way there understanding molecules moving and heat energy. HVAC pretty much is entirely based on the pressure temperature relationship. The higher the pressure the higher the temperature. In HVAC a machine will have a refrigerant that has properties that are beneficial for us when manipulating its pressure. The machine will act as a pump rapidly reducing the pressure of the refrigerant causing the gas to expand and release a tremendous amount of energy creating a cooling effect. Think liquid nitrogen. Once it’s exposed to our natural atmosphere the pressure holding the molecules is lower allowing it to expand and become very cold. Refrigerant will do this in the machine and become cold. Then it will be exposed to a cooling medium which in your home is the air inside. Another law of thermodynamics: Heat will always transfer from the warmer body to the colder body. The heat in the air will transfer to the cold refrigerant. The machine will pump the refrigerant back to a much higher pressure. This higher pressure will allow it to condense at a relatively high temperature back into a liquid refrigerant at which point it rejects heat away from the condenser to a place where it is less objectionable like outside your home. I always say that hvac machines act as a heat energy vacuum, pulling heat energy from where we don’t want it and placing it where it’s no longer a nuisance to us. It is essential to understand when changing states from a liquid to a gas/ vapor a large amount of energy is released. Like water refrigerant will boil off and condense at different temperatures based on the pressure it’s under. A higher pressure creates a higher boiling point as the pressure is acting on the molecules not allowing them to expand and cool down. This is why we sweat not because our sweat on our skin makes us lose heat but when the sweat evaporates from our skin energy is released creating a cooling effect for us. Since there is no such thing as cold ( just the absence of heat ) if you lower the pressure the molecules will have more space between them which creates the cold condition. The earths atmosphere acts as a kind of container trapping heat and applying pressure allowing heat energy from the sun to remain and warm our surroundings. One of the many reasons earth is such a special place. This is a fairly poor explanation of Refrigeration theory but really I just want to illustrate that it wouldn’t be possible without physics and how what we know about the physical world informs how we can manipulate this science to our benefit and understanding.
@@dakotadillon5981 Let's break down the HVAC process: Basic Principle: Everything is made up of atoms and molecules. When these atoms and molecules move or vibrate quickly, we perceive that as heat. When they move slowly, we perceive it as cold. The goal of HVAC systems is to control the speed at which these atoms and molecules move, thereby controlling the temperature. How HVAC Works: Heating: This is straightforward. You add energy (like burning gas or using electricity to produce heat) to make molecules move faster. Cooling: This is where it gets interesting. To cool a space, you need to remove heat from it. This is done using a process called refrigeration. Refrigeration Cycle: Evaporation: Inside the part of the HVAC system that's meant to cool (like the inside of your fridge or the indoor unit of your air conditioner), there's a coil filled with a special liquid called a refrigerant. This refrigerant evaporates (turns from liquid to gas) and in doing so, it absorbs heat from the surrounding area. This makes the surrounding area cooler. Compression: This gas is then compressed by a compressor. When you compress a gas, it gets hot (think of it as squeezing the molecules closer together, making them move faster). Condensation: This hot gas then flows to another coil, usually outside your house or the back of your fridge. Here, the gas condenses back into a liquid, releasing the heat it absorbed earlier. This is why the back of your fridge is warm. Expansion: The liquid refrigerant then goes through an expansion valve, where it expands and cools down, ready to evaporate again and absorb more heat. Your Ice Cube Analogy: When you hold an ice cube, your hand is warmer than the ice, so heat flows from your hand to the ice, melting it. To make the ice cube even colder, you'd need to remove heat from it. That's what freezers do. They use the refrigeration cycle to continually remove heat from the inside, making it colder and colder. In essence, HVAC systems are sophisticated ways of controlling where heat goes, either adding it to a space or removing it. The machinery and chemicals we use (like refrigerants) are specifically designed to be efficient at this heat transfer process. Your hand can both give off and absorb heat, depending on the circumstances. Here's how your hand can remove heat: Difference in Temperature: Heat naturally flows from a hotter object to a colder one. If your hand is colder than another object, heat will flow from that object to your hand until they reach thermal equilibrium (i.e., they are the same temperature). Conduction: When you touch something, heat can be transferred directly through the materials involved. This is why a metal spoon feels cold when you first pick it up from a drawer - it's conducting the heat away from your hand. Convection: If your hand is cooler than the surrounding air, it can absorb heat from the air. This is especially true if there's airflow. For example, if you've ever wet your hand and then waved it in the air, you've felt it get cooler. This is because the water is evaporating (which requires heat) and the moving air is carrying away the heat. Radiation: All objects emit infrared radiation. The amount and wavelength of this radiation depend on the object's temperature. If your hand is cooler than its surroundings, it will absorb more radiation than it emits. Evaporation: This is a significant way your body, including your hands, cools down. When you sweat, the sweat evaporates, which requires heat. This heat is taken from your skin, cooling it down. If you've ever put rubbing alcohol on your skin, you've felt this effect strongly, as alcohol evaporates faster than water. However, it's important to note that while your hand can remove heat from objects warmer than it, it's not as efficient as the mechanisms used in HVAC systems. The human body is designed to maintain a relatively constant internal temperature, so while it has mechanisms to shed excess heat or generate warmth when needed, it's not designed to function as a refrigeration device. Cooling an ice cube with a human hand presents a paradoxical scenario. Under typical conditions, a human hand is warmer than an ice cube, so if you were to hold an ice cube, heat would transfer from your hand to the ice, causing the ice to melt. Let's entertain the idea of a human hand cooling an ice cube. Here's what would need to happen: Hand Temperature: The temperature of the hand would need to be lower than the ice cube. This means the hand would need to be colder than 0°C (32°F). This is not a natural or safe state for human tissue. Prolonged exposure to such temperatures can lead to frostbite. Heat Transfer: If the hand were colder than the ice cube, heat would flow from the ice cube to the hand, causing the ice cube to become even colder. The rate of this heat transfer would depend on the difference in temperature between the hand and the ice cube. External Factors: The surrounding environment would play a role. If the ambient temperature is warmer than the ice cube, the ice cube would also be gaining heat from the environment. To effectively cool the ice cube, you'd want to minimize this external heat gain. In reality, achieving this scenario would be highly impractical and potentially harmful. The human body is not designed to function at temperatures below freezing.
@@dakotadillon5981have you ever held a can of air duster upside down and sprayed it? Mysteriously cold right? Start there, but close the system as you think through it. Remember the components of an air conditioner e.g. compressor, Freon, etc. It'll make sense to you.
I am a physicist myself, having been trained 20 years ago, this video was interesting and helped me brush up the concept of entropy. It's all well and good to understand the math, but having it illustrated the way it is in this video is very useful. Thank you.
@@skydyverjym Thanks Mr D. Kruger. Just because Veritasium broke it down for you on a low level doesn't mean you understand. Why dont you tell us how Sgen (kJ/K) = dQ/T was derived?
This channel has become truly incredible over the past couple of years. It was always great, but the increased frequency of uploads and high production quality is amazing. Shout-out to the entire Veritasium team!
This one video helped answer soooo many questions, at the level of both physics and philosophy. Thank you for all the interesting work you do and help us understand our world a little better!
Thank you so much for recommending Brilliant. Extremely helpful for newbie like me to learn data analysis with vivid illustrations and practical examples❤. It’s been a pretty long time since I can concentrate on watching a long video like this.😊
My God Derrick, this is one of your best videos yet. You’re the only content creator that I actively check to see if you have any new content. Your last few videos have been interesting, but this kind of extremely competently explained mind blowing content is some of your best work. You truly have a talent like no other.
When I was like 9 or 10, I had this little series of books that basically explained different science concepts in a kid-friendly way and after reading the physics one, I kept telling my mom my room was always messy because of entropy 😭😭 edit: for anyone interested in the books, they’re from the Basher Science series!
Oh, the beauty of teaching with today’s graphics. So much better than when I studied these concepts in the early seventies. Back then these could only be pictures in our minds.
Vsauce used to do it as well, then it got pay to watch... But in my opinion this channel doesn't get the amount of love or followers it should be having.
That's *likely* because a teenage brain is not equipped for abstract thought needed to grasp concepts such as entropy. That is, even if Derek was your secondary physics teacher, it's still more likely you would not have gotten the explanation of entropy. Science can be enjoyed more when you're past 20.
@@shadewood3083exactly. im in first year of high school and our chemistry teacher is an absolute GOD. he explained all the concepts mentioned in the video to us during our thermodynamics lectures and the way he explains it is just beautiful. he's been teaching multiple classes since 2003, yet the gleam in his eyes when he explains second law of thermodynamics to us is incredibly inspiring. like he's been teaching THIS long and he's still like, "isn't science amazing?"
@@mimichalek a teenage brain is only lacking development in the prefrontal cortex which regulates thoughts, actions and emotions... they are not dumb, just emotionally chaotic and bad at judging consequences
But don't people know that heat through sunlight comes in from the sun during the day and radiates out to space at night? That answers the premise that he starts this video on.
The idea that earth re-radiates the same amount of received energy bypasses photosynthesis. Immediately, we can appreciate that earthlings (first plants) store solar energy. Some is also converted to kinetic energy of the earth's core and tectonic system.
Lmaooo the gambling versions of the laws. My professor had a bonus point opportunity to try and come up with a gambling version of the zeroeth law. Forgot about these and that till I read this, thank u
I have a masters in chemical engineering and struggled to understand this for years. This is the most elegant and beautiful and logical explanation of thermodynamics I have ever seen and heard.
Altho it goes more on a quantum level, I really liked Carlo Rovelli’s explanation in “The order of time”. Even he mentions how there is not such a thing as arrow of time but instead the illusion of it depending on the scale you examine a system.
I have a ChemEng masters and actually really enjoyed thermodynamics (great lecturer, always helps). I still learned something from this. I do feel it rather skipped over the fact that, aside from fossil fuels and nuclear, the sun's incident energy is all that we get. Therefore it should be considered something of a budget, in synergy with the planet's existing energy systems and with total respect for this concept of entropy (economists in particular need to learn this). Especially now given the increasing challenge with climate change.
well, the glory of physics is just changing your timelines to make it correct. So in terms of chemical engineering, this is a vast oversimplification based on extending the timeline to make it net out. Instead, you have to be practical
15:47 to 16:27 . That has to be one of the best cinematography I've ever seen. The narration, the visuals and the background music especially. Best build up to reveal the Star of the talk (quite literally)
If you thought the cinematography was really good here I'd watch Interstellar if you haven't already, easily the best depiction of the universe I have ever seen
You're right! It Was nicely done! Wasn't trying to hear a physics lecture at the moment, but it was so well done, it really kept my attention. Can't wait to watch it over and over again so I really capture all of it.
Finally I have understood entropy as a concept. All other TH-camrs failed to talk me through. They often use a mixed chocolate as explanation to why entropy will only increase, but I thought things actual condense after a while and gravity could always put things together. Amazing job.
The terrifying thing about this is: imagine how many people got taught entropy & science in this terribly not understandable wrong way. And now think: all generations before us are 90% victims to this teachings. And they lead us.
Yeah but its a bit left uncompleted cause he spoke about gravity but he didnt speak about black energy nor how it is lately found to actually be decreasing in its acceleration. So technically speaking if this continues in the faaaar future it could be possible after the continuous expansion finishes, and black energy is no longer more "powerful" than gravity that a single universal singularity is made and the cycle is renewed once again
This is easily one of the best explanations of the Carnot engine and entropy making them very easy to understand. It pulls so much of Thermodynamics and history together in a succinct way that only now can I actually connect so many dots in my undergrad physics and pchem courses. Not to mention the incredibly high quality visuals and examples. One of the best channels on TH-cam hands down, thank you Veritasium!!!
I agree with you completely on the Carnot engine presentation; the best I've ever seen. However, I wish Derek had stopped around 14'00" (at the Rubik's Cube) before wandering off into La La land; the cosmologists (not astrophysicists or astronomers I hasten to add) bend conjecture to their will and use declarative language about their wildest speculations without even a hint of humility; it's like they've decided the scientific process doesn't apply to them anymore.
That La la land bit actually includes some more fundamental physics. 17:26 explains where all our low entropy 'energy' originated from and where all our high entropy is today!
I have a masters degree in energy studies and this is the first time I have seen such an illustrative explanation of the concept of entropy, i actually learned something - great job!
@kwokshsee riddle me this, kwokshsee. a solid material like my desk here has lower entropy than my coffee which is liquid. particles in my desk are surely more "clumped" than those in my coffee which are more "spread out". also i imagine you just being like umm actually 🤓entropy is higher when particles get more _freedom!_ lmao, when particles or energy are more "spread out" they will be able to fill more space, making it "less predictable", at the same time giving it "more freedom" to move around compared to when particles are "clumped". guy making the video isn't wrong, you just like to sugarcoat your words. what are you on smh just let everyone enjoy science, man
I've been casually reading about entropy as a non-expert in popular physics books for decades. This is the best explanation I have ever heard. And the first one that made lots of sense. It sends shivers up my spine.
Trust me, a good teacher will change your life. We had a really good chemistry teacher in my last high school year and she was amazing, you could understand everything because of how she teaches and does things, but sadly we only had her for a semester. Still today, I appreciate her so much. Love you ma'am G!
Entropy has always allowed me to make sense of the world around me. I love how you explained it here and love all your work. I would love it if you added names of institutions that take donations to support research in the topic of the video. Thanks again for spreading the knowledge.
It's mostly unlikely that you will see this comment but, I have been watching since a very long time, the way you make science videos so interesting is mesmerizing. The Production that goes behind, the writing, editing and music combined makes it no less then a sci-fi movie by a huge production house. Thanks for making these videos. Never stop
It's amazing that I get to watch such a high quality content in 4k packed with tons of information. This 30 min video made thermodynamics far more interesting. This video is so good that if I were in grade school I would be interested in learning more about thermodynamics after watching this.
I don’t know if it’s because I studied this but I found this video way above the others in term of quality. I can’t quite point out why, butvit was phenomenal in term of production yes.
14:28 Not quite accurate, there are multiple ways for the cube to be solved, the center parts can be in different orientations. There are some extra steps you need to do to make sure a cube with for example pictures on all sides is properly solved vs a cube with just flat colors.
PURE BS Incident solar energy is stored in earth as potential energy of petroleum & coal. Gravity crestes Ultra missive Black holes & their explosion is the big bang that creates universe & this process is the source of entropy reduction.
Yeah I think he's being a bit vague with his PhD in this video, but it was actually in education. He's not what you will think of when someone says Physicist.
@@manojlds I understand where you're coming from but his PhD was actually in Physics. "Physics Education Research" is only a research area of the Physics Department (just Google sydney university SUPER group). You still need to take graduate-level Physics courses for that as all the others Physics students. And a PhD in Education is not a thing in most universities. Just looked all this up myself.
This is beautiful. Honestly, when you got to the probabilities explanation and brought statistics into this I was absolutely amazed by how simple to understand this was. Thank you for making this video.
The crux of complex life, however, to reverse energy comes down to genetics. The number of all possible gene arrangements unimaginably outnumbers all those that could have occurred across all organisms that could have existed on earth despite a period of 4 billion years. Do the math. The dilemma? Despite this realitively immense small number of gene arrangements that ever existed, arrangements of such that produced increasingly evolving complex life through random changes emerged. This could not have occurred based on a Darwinian natural selection search engine alone to produce so many successful complex life forms with such relatively few tries. Its all a matter of entropy. The probability is to low. Neither could any known natural or man made algorithm weed out such evolving life forms in so few tries. Its not even close. God exists, and so does evil, as evident in the fact billions of people will soon destroy each other with the help of high-tech. Realize the same evil is in you and accept the blood of Jesus to redeem you while time remains.
this was such a great video! I learned that 1.) Entropy isnt just disorder or chaos that our science classes used to teach us in secondary education and 2.) the cosmic horror of the impending heat death of the universe which is suprisingly not nilhility but apparently dullness. I guess I'm not sleeping tonight.
"The Last Question", a short story by Isaac Asimov, explores the human questioning of entropy in an inspiring way. Thanks for such a beautiful and clarifying video!
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
I feel ya
For real, I wish I'd had this video like 5-6 years ago during my bachelors!
@@thegamesforreal1673 same
Definitely. I highly recommend this video to any chemical or mechanical engineer.
For real
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.
@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist8 yeah yeah whatever...
Question. What if we take a small black hole (let the temperature be T=50000 Kelvin - the radiation of photons with low entropy) and we send particles or photons with high entropy into this hole. It turns out that the black hole will absorb high entropy and radiate low. In other words, the energy from the cold will go to the hot?
@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist8 His name was not Jesus. Your church couldn't even not lie about his name. Your church doesn't care about the truth, they only care about if you believe in what they want you to believe in. They don't even believe in it themselves. Most pick and choose to believe in the things they want, and just ignore the rest. You can even ask one christian something, then another, and then another and you will get three different answers but they all swear their answer is "the" truth.
@@criticalthinker420okay christian "missionary" comments are annoying but this is straight up religious discrimination and is not right.
@@drenzine calling out Religions is correct. End the stupidity
The value of your channel is immeasurable. Thanks for making such great educational videos. You return more value to humanity than what you take. You are an "digital entropy anomaly" thank you!
Thank you so much for your kind words and support!
I just finished a college level course on thermodynamics. We spent a full day and several homework problems on a carnot heat engine, and it made no sense to me at all. Now it makes sense. Thank you.
"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!
@kwokshseeBy energy, he meant pockets of energy inside those said particles within a system are clumped which means having less freedom to spread out, essentially meaning higher freedom, he used liberal language for more people to understand, if you're so knowledgeable, make a video explaining what's wrong! This reply makes you look dumb.
i have a black bf
What's a "stream" of entropy? Would that work if the sun was all around rather than in one direction?
@@MrCmon113 A stream of low entropy just basically means "high energy clumped together or fundamental particles with less freedom of movement", which then we spread out increasing our entropy. The entropy of the sun increases as we receive energy!
@kwokshseeLmao
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.
Agreed!
Also Veritasium getting back to his roots of interviewing people on the street :) love it
Also can't miss the way he integrated the interviews into the video making it more diverse and relatable, brilliant
I agree as well, plus I might know the answer, but if someone asked me out of the blue on the street, I would not be able to give it.
Veritasium: Im a PhD physicist
Old lady clearly confused: Oh ok carry on 🫡
😊
This has to be one of the best Veritasium episodes.
Good
I think he got the idea to make a video about Entropy from the recent video by Sabine Hossenfelder, who covered the same topic.
You just advertise yourself
@@cheesebusiness Well show me Einstein where the flaw of my logic is 🧐
@@tariqtech5078 The form of the evidence you just gave is known as the "Watchmaker's Analogy." It's very commonly used to argue for intelligent design but it is pseudoscientific; debunked by evolution which, yes, is powered by entropy. I'd recommend learning about it, maybe starting with the Wikipedia entry, if you are at all interested in expanding your worldview - a practice that would make the world a better place if more people weren't afraid to do.
Thanks! for Entropy vid, it flipped my mind...love your work
Thank you for the kind words, glad you enjoyed!
The thing about one photon from the sun turning into several spreading out in all directions answered a long standing question for me - how to explain the way the sun “powers” life on earth in terms of entropy. Thanks!
No one taught you about photosynthesis?
If watching a Veritasium video leads to me watching a SteveMould video with black holes instead of another Veritasium video with black holes; could that be considered a Spool Paradox or another example of a big photon converting into many small photons?
Jokes aside, I love your videos and I lm glad you left a comment.
It's just life radiation bro.
One photon cannot turn into several photons. İmo.
@@garrysekelli6776why not? If a high energy photon is absorbed, cant it can be later emitted in different levels? In a way that all the photons' energy when aaded up will be equal to the original high energy photon
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!
Remember, no one can ever be too old to learn and experience!
@@_aconite_cj_ Amen to that friend!
@@twofishes8846 💖✨ cheers to knowledge
Is it scary to be 69 and figure out a new passion? Do you feel like you might miss out on new discoveries or maybe not have the time to learn as much as you want? I am 21 and i am already worried about living in a time where I will probably miss out on many discoveries and on many radical societal changes. What's your philoshopy on this?
@@alexgeo2615 we live at a very fortunate moment in time, where many exciting discoveries are currently happening, and many essential developments have already been made that make our quality of life excellent. Every time period will have its challenges and its frontiers to explore. My perspective is, don't worry about what you might miss out, go dive in and enjoy what there is. There are an inexhaustible number of exciting and world-improving things we can work on, passions we can enjoy, etc. Make the most of the time you have, that will minimize regret.
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.
Amen to that. I came here to say exactly that! To the letter.
@@marcelboersma Yeah me too. Same thoughts. One of the best, definitely.
Yeah who need religion when truth is stranger than fiction
@@jhayes0128 because science cant explain what caused the universe or big bang happened?
The video itself was beautiful indeed, the music helped a lot too. Nearly teared up a couple of times.
I JUST studied this topic in depth for my IB HL Physics class, feels so great to recognize and understand so many of these examples! The history behind the Carnot cycle is also really cool to know
I was a student of physics. Today at the age of 57 I understood what entropy actually means. Thank you.
Indian education system which is destroying all young youths😢
Why did we integrate the work done by the piston and on the piston ( 6:54 ) . Is it applying the second law of thermodynamics(entrophy) meaning which formula? Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm just curious!
@@elrohifilmon2291 It is using the formula for work= force x displacement since the amount of work done on the piston is almost equal to the amount of heat produced due to work being high-grade energy.
@@astro18965 Okay thank you for your explanation It really helped!!! I think i should go look into my advanced physics studies I'm lingering in the past in grade 9 -10 physics , tho i really hate the idea of integration, just the concept behind definite integrals, area, volume etc.... Overall thank you very much.
You were a student but it seems your failed to pass. It's fundamentally taught, wtf.
Derek's ability to break down ideas of this level of complexity and explain them in a way that almost everyone can understand and appreciate is exactly what we need more in the world. It's education at it's finest. I applaud you.
Yes Exactly...
I have a question though...
if we assume the world to go on for an infinite amount of seconds... at a certain point everything can suddenly do the improbable thing and go towards low entropy right? Based on what Boltzmann said, going toward lower entropy is extremely improbable, but if time goes on for infinity, every improbable thing will happen once... so after the heat death of the Universe, there will come a time when the big bang appears again...
This comment 💯
Try einstein 6yr old and explain it as such
@@runtimeterror1358you're right!
At a certain point few things can suddenly do the improbable things which was least likely, but there's a larger basket what happening around. "If after heat death, all the least probable things will happen then it's also true to say all the most probable things will also happen"
So in a way the the whole scnerio remains same...
And after heat death there'll be nothing that will happen.
@@runtimeterror1358Very interesting comment!! After heat death, there'll be no concept of time I guess. Think about it, no entropy, no cause/effect, absolute zero temperature & no particle moves, no space-time curvature, no concept of time, nothing!!!!
PhD physicist and engineer here. This brought an incredibly enlightening perspective for me. I must say, the concept of entropy is not a simple one... Many physicist, also as mentioned in the video, battle to fully understand the concept. This brought it all together for me. I'm having a rough night just deeply thinking about entropy because the concept is far more elegant than i ever imagined it. Thank you for this insanely amazing work.
Hello. Keep thinking about. I am a doctor, and from many years ago ,the entropy discovery change my life and the perspective on human beeing, their reaction, the cause of boring, cause of the war, cause of love, cause of friendship, cause of happiness. Everything relates with entropy.
Even why we sleep, the way substantia nigra in our brains work is a entropy function machine.
Hello good sir, you mention being a physicist and an engineer, may I ask the academic roadmap you took for that? As in what degrees did you get?
My favorite "joke" that my PhD advisor told me was, "Even thermodynamic professors don't understand entropy." It is one of those things that people like to sum up with, "chaos" but that doesn't really relay the idea well when it comes to what energy is doing and why we use certain terms in the equations.
I asked chatgpt about this same thing and it's surprising that it's almost the same as this video 😮
Prompt-
Try to relate entropy with the sun, earth and universe, if possible include philosophy also.
Ans-
In the context of the sun, earth, and the universe, we can explore the concept of entropy from different perspectives, including scientific and philosophical aspects.
From a scientific standpoint, entropy plays a role in understanding the natural processes and evolution of systems. The sun is a massive source of energy that radiates heat and light into space. This energy flows from a high-energy state (the sun) to a lower-energy state (the surroundings). As this energy disperses and spreads out, it leads to an increase in entropy.
On Earth, entropy is related to the concept of thermodynamic equilibrium. Over time, energy and matter tend to spread out, seeking a state of equilibrium or balance. For example, consider the water cycle, where water evaporates from the surface, condenses into clouds, and eventually precipitates back to the surface. This cyclic process involves the transfer and transformation of energy, but it also leads to an increase in entropy as energy is dissipated and distributed.
In the broader context of the universe, the concept of entropy is linked to the idea of the arrow of time and the second law of thermodynamics. The second law states that in a closed system, the entropy tends to increase over time, meaning that disorder or randomness tends to prevail. This idea is often associated with the observation that systems naturally evolve from states of low entropy (high organization) to states of high entropy (disorder).
From a philosophical perspective, entropy can be seen as a metaphor for the nature of existence and the impermanence of order. It aligns with the philosophical concept of change, decay, and the fleeting nature of things. The increase of entropy symbolizes the inevitability of the passage of time, the dissolution of structure, and the constant transformation of the universe.
In summary, entropy is a fundamental concept that relates to the flow of energy, the tendency of systems to move towards equilibrium, and the increase of disorder or randomness over time. It has scientific implications in understanding natural processes and is intertwined with philosophical ideas about the nature of existence and the passage of time.
@@Entropic_Alloy lol yeah I think they don't really know 😂. wish this video available when I was a student. but it's never too late because it can be useful in my current work also
this is DEFINITELY one of the best video on youtube.
25:06 is my favorite part. like everyone NEED to hear that.
let's maximize our precious low entropy moment.
This is clearly the best Veritasium video and one of the best physics explanations I have seen!
Thanks a lot!
This one and the one with Gravity is not a Force!
Have you just started watching him? He has tons of videos on this level or higher
@@dragoda and the 3n+1 problem
@@niteshmarwaha6798 yes yes triple yes. I have watched that video dozens of time. I didn' t know there were any other fans of the 3x+1 problem.
Thank you so much! That's amazing to hear, glad you enjoyed!
I remember in my college statistical thermodynamics course the professor said we don't die, we just reach equilibrium.
i think we could vanish
An eternal peace
Metabolic equilibrium
Everything is just plus minus, one big wave finally hitting even
so romantic😮😊
I'm a chemical engineer, and I always hated the way they defined Entropy to us in textbooks or how teachers would explain it to us. They say Entropy is disorder or randomness which never really tells you what it is. I never completely understood the concept but watching this now after all those years it looks like yes it was so obvious, it is disorder now I get it why it is defined asdisorder.
I agree!
OMG. THIS. YES. Especially the bit about the complexity at the end. That really made the light bulb go off.
Bro jee aspirant?
i have a black bf
@@preetamraj4713 Nah bro completed my grad 2 years ago working in oil and gas now.
16:24 The music on the onset of the sun as a few rays of hope(light) from the sun shine on the surface of the earth is amazing!
I know rightt!!
Beautiful! Almost poetic!
Check out the Planet Earth II opening sequence
I just had a Thermodynamics course in university. I must say, you explained about 2 lectures worth of information in 7 minutes, and you used the rest of the time to make thermodynamics from an engineers nightmare to a scientists interest. Well done!
imho this is his strength. Making mathematical/theoretical science relateable
Brilliant what you can grasp when your profs aren't just trying to force equations in your mind ❤
And then you still have people like my boomer dad who won't even take a look at anything on TH-cam because "Internet bad" but will happily watch TV all day long lol
I've been there and know what you mean. Courses would have been so much easier -- and FUN -- if our courses were taught by people like Derek, Tom Hanks, Matt O'Dowd, Joe Hanson, and the like.
ehh how did he make it less of a nightmare for engineers? this whole comment is absurd
My physic/mechanics teacher always told me, that the principle of entropy is best explained by a desk that gets more and more messy by time and that one must put energy into it to clean it up.
Abrasion?
You made a serious mistake! The Earth, being an open system and receiving energy from the sun, will still not be able to generate life. Energy by itself is destructive to life. For life to exist, highly complex machinery (nanomachines) is needed to convert energy into useful work for the cell. It is not just any form of energy, it has to be specific. You have to explain the nanomachines, which the laws of nature cannot create. For example, the steam train and a machine that uses thermal energy for work. Everyone who defends the origin of life by the laws of nature makes this mistake.
Oh so entropy is basically karma with a human definition attached
@@eduardovasconcelos2476 you're talking about enzymes bruv lol
@@flinchus not. nanomachines
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.
That was good
good one
I'm glad to exist at a pocket of the universe that has exactly the right amount of entropy for a Veritasium video to exist.
Best answer 😝
Propaganda can have that effect.🤫
Thanks!
Thank you!
I did my PhD in biophysics and I love that you mentioned life when talking about entropy. This always confuses people until they realize you’re not a closed system
Im no student, just a hobbyist interested in all things science, but damn the whole shine a light on random atoms and getting life was mind-blowing for me. THIS is the argument I wish more OoL scientists explained. Abiogenisis in a quote.
Lol
@@wwlittlejOfficial That's quote was the stupidest thing I ever heard
In science
@@youcefmoulla1828 because ur not doing it right, science.
A few years back, I was involved in a debate on evolution. A creationist claimed that evolution violated the 2nd law of thermodynamics and therefore evolution was impossible. I pointed out that the 2nd law only applies to closed systems, and that life on Earth is an open system getting energy from the sun. End of that line of debate.
I am a young physics student at the University of Trieste, Italy. This video made me emotional, thinking about concepts like this explained in this way makes me shiver. Truly congratulations, it's thanks to videos like these that people get passionate about physics
dude ... why you so low entropy?
man i loved visiting trieste a couple weeks ago but i hated how much car traffic there is. Food was great though!
I’m only only a formally uneducated intern at a mechanical engineering company and this video made me emotional. I should really take a thermodynamics class or something.
@@NLghost010 you must be crazy to drive in Trieste ahaha
io mi emoziono a vedere un italiano sotto questo video...e pure intelligente (ti invidio)
Thank you for everything that you do. The part about time ceasing to exist at the heat death of the universe was mind-blowing.
it's also just a theory
@@P________ You're intelligence level is also a theory.
@@P________ A GAME THEORY
@@P________not bad then. It's reached the peak of scientific discovery!
@@P________ ignore these science cultists
OMG! I first came across entropy in some early Michael Moorcock books. I was fascinated by the concept. Now, 50 years later, I understand it thanks to this video.
I've been studying aerospace engineering now for 2.5 years and when I say that this channel is an absolute blessing, probably all STEM students here would agree. The way you can not just explain a certain topic, but - much more importantly - kind of contextualise and explain how the topic integrates into the bigger picture of how the world works in a more general fashion makes this channel an essential tool for us. This video was probably the best example. By far. Funnily enough, I'm writing the thermodynamics exam in about two months. All the names you mentioned rung a bell immediately. Before the video, I knew what entropy was in the sense of "state of disorder" and how it's used in formulas, but after this video, I get the sense that I'm starting to internalise and being able to handle the topic. This video didn't teach me more about thermodynamics, instead it taught me about how everything outside of thermodynamics is affected and intertwined with thermodynamics. For me, I see it this way: at university, nature is divided into subjects and this channel undoes those divisions, brings those subjects together and "reintegrates" them into nature. So please never stop making these videos, because this channel fulfills an important function for many of us.
My dream is become a aero space engineer . Now I am studying final year high secondary.. can you explain about the importance aerospace engineering like about work what we actually do it and we studied about the universe and space or not and what are subject covered in aerospace engineering.. please 😊
I've said for years now, that the way we teach science (US); splitting them into different subjects, does our understanding of the principles a disservice. Sure, it's easy to understand subjects when compartmentalized, but it doesn't allow for lateral and connective understanding of all scientific subjects.
Exactly @lucaskytl, I got the same feeling when I watched the video about mandelbraught set
Like I said, he makes learning easy.
I'm just a truck driver. But with this knowledge I shall be a truck driver with a bit more knowledge
I've literally been wondering for years why the universe started with low entropy when it was so uniform. Wouldn't say I have a clear understanding now but at least I'm not completely in the dark anymore. Thank you so much for explaining this ♥️
:D
We might think in terms of energy-mass conversion too. First, think that when the universe was young, we had a lot of mass in sub-particles untangled together. Then, because of gravity and strong force, they started mending with each other. But this process transformed mass into energy, due to E = mc². In a nutshell, we might think like this: the existence of the universe and life and all that MATTER is the transformation of mass aka things into energy aka nothingness.
Because God started the process without any flaw in His actions, in essence because He is supremely "ordered," His creation of the universe(a slow and careful process) eventually came under the influence of Entropy because that is the only scientific explanation for how that energy eventually spread out and subsided.
life forms are the same, we did not start with lifeless ooze, this would violate Entropy by going from chaos to order, so we know this is completely impossible. From God, the original life was created, complex and orderly, and formulated to evolve and change based on a strict set of orderly rules and no random chance or chaos.
There is no conceivable way for the universe to create itself because it violates Entropy and the laws governing Conservation of energy/mass/momentum/etc, and besides, accidents have no rules, and if it has no rules then it does not exist in science.
@@ArtificerOfWarif this lets you sleep at night, power to you, mate.
@@YouTenaza so you're admitting to liking the parts of science that you agree with and disregarding the parts you dont? Lol
My professor for gen chem 1 and 2 taught us to think of entropy in this way. Reading the comments of others about how they were never taught to think of entropy like this, I'm once again reminded of how wonderful of a professor he was.
I had a science teacher back in grade school that set me up to think about things one step outside of what we immediately observe and I have treasured his insight my whole life.
This is standard interpretation of entropy here. I personally was taught in Kyiv polytechnic. But it's the same country -wide.
@@rueben225 That teacher made you smarter for sure. I always try to think "outside the box" and reason things from first principles.
@@512TheWolf512 Western education is likely less standardized, not coming from a Soviet style command structure/more rigid/traditional culture.
I had a teacher called Dr Ollerenshaw in the UK. He was the most silly person I've ever met! He had "fun tie fridays" and "two tie tuesdays" that he'd normally wear one around his head 😆. My fave teacher hands down
After doing 6 years of doing gradutate process thromodynamics and then a Ph.D. in Statistical Physics, I wish he made this video a bit earlier. This is one of the most beautiful ways of explaining entropy. And the visuals are simply breathtaking.
The best synthesis ever in the best way I needed it presented. This might just be my favourite video of all the ones you've ever made or any of the physics channels I follow come to think of it. Thanks a mil.
Woah
@@lauravincent6935 It's like €13
@@simianto9957nah it’s 250 euros
@@lauravincent6935 Its 14 dollars i almost thought it was 2k lol
@@jiayuzhang2065 The currency is Japanese not Chinese.
I am a physicist and so I already knew almost all the info in this video (except for some details on the ratio of photons to and from the earth, and I'm not strong on the Hawking radiation) but nonetheless I found this video EXHILARATING. Your way to travel from a question to an explanation is poetic and a true form of art. I love everything you do. And the imagery and the choice of music were the coronation of it all, so congratulations to the editing team as well. Forever one of the best channels in the whole tube.
Its not bad, the handwaving was blended in nicely. Hardly notice it if you dont already know its coming, like a magic trick.
Yea, same here. Knew all the details pretty much, but damn. He's making pure art of videos. I am always perplexed by his absolute genius ways of making videos.
Me too. The way he explains a semester of physics in layman´s terms, while still being rigorous and interesting for an expert, is just extremely impressive. He is just such an inspiring science communicator.
100% - amazing to listen to. The best so far
@@deltalima6703 handwaving?
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.
Lol, University profs suck
We are visual learners. That’s why.
@@evannaallen4609 youtube is the great gift to visual learners
My professor explained it slightly differently, but it still made sense. Entropy is disorder and energy is only useful when it is organized in to packets with differential. Differential is key, without it there can be no energy transfer and therefore no use of the energy.
A few minutes into this video and I feel I don't need an undergraduate thermodynamics class.
I'm being parabolic
Maha, hmhm, ithankyou
This video is only useful to me now that I have taken multiple classes regarding thermodynamic principles. I remember when this first came out I was familiar with entropy and didn't know the small little complexities that exist inside the concept so when you casually drop these little nuggets like "absolute zero is 100% efficient" along with the visual, it made me smile at that depiction. I always knew from the formulas and from images that 100% efficiency would exist in that scenario theoretically however it is impossible, but with the visual representation that you provided it made that concept sink much deeper into my understanding. I find that this video has much greater effect on someone that is already familiar with the topic and use it as a refresher/ supplementary learning. Thank you for the work you've put in!
I love the casual flex. "I'm a PHD physicist." 😂 Very justified.
Thanks Derek!
he’s for sure a good science communicator, but doesn’t actually have a physics phd. If he really had one he wouldn’t need to flex about it.
@zemsorg you should do research before you say things you are uninformed about.
@@zemsorg He actually does have a PhD from the University of Sydney in Physics Education. The point is, anyone who actually worked hard enough to get a PhD should be completely justified in bragging about it.
@@zemsorgI don't think he even wanted to flex, it was more about proving to the old lady that he knew what he was talking about.
@@samwilson3329 Well PhD in Physics education and PhD in physics are two very very different things. But it doesn't require a PhD to understand the basic physics and few fundamental laws of the universe. Also it's not guaranteed that people who actually have PhD in physics understand it better than people who don't.
I have a degree in chemical engineering .. so, I studied thermodynamics for years. This 20 min youtube video would have helped shortcircuit a year or two of struggling to understand the concept of entropy.
The part about the early universe being uniform and evenly distributed, but low entropy, due to gravity -- was particularly mind-blowing. That was something that always bothered me about the concept of entropy, at universe-scale.
Actually that is the part I didn’t understand. How is gravity causing it to be low entropy? If someone could answer
@@sangodkar121 Because gravity causes things to clump together but in the early universe things appear to be evenly spread, which is a very unlikely configuration which means that it will shift out of that configuration into a more likely one which is why it has low entropy because of that inevitably shift of states.
@@MrAwdse if things were evenly spread then it had high entropy not low?
I don’t understand the gravity part either
@@MrAwdseFrom what I can understand, you are implying that there is gravity on the early stage of the universe, is that right? If so, then why don't all matters on the universe clump together into one because of gravity, instead of expanding as to how the universe is now? Sorry, I am very, VERY confused on that part 😖
=== You need an ordered universe first. The energy from the big bang a first cause event originated in a compact ordered state. Not by accident. Now, entropy is at work. Already the universe is 13 + or - billions years old. The creation of elements took a few billion years to achieve. Now a terraformed earth doesn't just happen and also requires stepped progress. Not by accident peoples. Your brain that is an organic computer no way could have come from dirt. Impossible. Thinking abilities and consciousness are because of complex formulaic chemical equations also not by accident. No way the laws of physics or chemistry could allow and cause your brain, an organic computer to happen from dirt. Impossible ==== Evolution = Self Assembling Atoms = Impossible ====
As a mechanical engineering undergraduate, I would thank you for making this video explanation of entropy. And based on what I have seen on TH-cam, this is the absolute best explanation of the Carnot Cycle.
Did I understand correctly that the way energy moves between the bars is the same general concept of time moving forward? The states where entropy decreases are so extremely unlikely that it can't actually happen, same as the states where heat moves from cold to hot being too unlikely for them to happen? If so, that is mindblowing?
Would that also mean that time travel is possible _in theory_ if we manage to reverse the increase in entropy?
Thank you for actually describing what the video is about. Not even Veritasium could be bothered to do so. 🙄
@@cvbattum Well, we can say this in reverse. If (past) time travel would ever be possible in future, it would be accompanied by the decrease in entropy of the universe. Which ultimately leads to the reason why it won't ever be possible in the first place. 😅
There is this absolutely simple example to explain the increasing entropy of the universe:
Consider a balloon inflated to say 20% of its full capacity. Now attach suction cups all over its surface and pull in all directions. The balloon would stretch, and as a consequence the entropy of the air molecules inside would increase, just the newly created volume inside would be filled by vacuum.
The universe can be thought of in a similar way.
Hats off to the artist who draw Carnot's hair. From the front, but also the aerial shot of him writing with a feather. I don't think I've ever been impressed by animated hair until now.
As a chemical engineer who has done massive amounts of thermodynamics, kinetics, and fluid dynamics this my friend is the best explanation of everything. You taught me things in an easier sense and you brought in all my favs from the boltzman constant to Carnot heat engine. Thanks:)
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.
its about creation theory and facts now known
Very important, but like the video explains, very misunderstood. Even moreso than it or anyone here seems to talk about. Like all things, context is important, and a crucial piece of context in regards to not just entropy, but to countless scientific notions, is us: an entity and a force within the system that possesses increasingly meta level knowledge of the whole thing, allowing us exploit phenomena at our will. The idea of entropy doesn't ever seem to take into account an opposite force, a force not particularly pleased with entropy/disorder, a force that seems keen on pinning every other phenomena against it. That force is us.
Our quest to build stronger and more efficient computers in essence makes them anti entropy machines, entropy annihilators. Using every universal law we can get our hands on to compress matter and energy down into ever increasingly small confines, in the name of some kind of order. So I guess the question is, what's stronger, entropy or anti-entropy. What's a more fundamental force? Order right, since things seem to progress from a more ordered state to a less ordered state. Entropy is merely reality stretching it's leg, it's a product of something much grander, a slave to a force much more fundamental.
I was here in the very beginning, when all things were made, I am the universe looking back at itself.
@@PherPhurOverall, I do agree. As Kant said it: it's all phenomena within our minds. Jiddu puts it poetically: I am the world, and the world is me.
Just to be a bit more precise, please note: entropy is not a force in any physical sense. It's pure math. Statistics tells us what is likely and given so many particles and atoms (80th power of ten or so!) math and probabilities seem to give us time and only what's likely to happen does indeed happen. But, you and I go after unlikely things like building computers and tech in general, and becoming more aware. And, that seems to be our Will, maybe a more conscious (less blind) version than Schopenhauer put it. And, it does rule, and will probably continue to do so until time is no more. And when we reach that timeless state, we are back at the beginning, the timeless state prior to the Big Bang. Penrose seems to hint at such a cyclic universe and believes that it is the beginnings of a falsifiable theory of everything, ama Creation.
I am wrestling with a lot of these ideas. I wrote out this longer question/thoughts so I wanted to post it here since you said you were a PhD physicist. Any response would be greatly appreciated.
If entropy occurs in closed systems, does the fact of entropy prove our observable universe is a closed system? So much might not be argued, but then if both high and low entropy conditions are “equal” (probably not a helpful term for people who actually understand this stuff) then does our universe actually end in a “heat death” or is it just as true to say that our universe ends where it began, with the perfect conditions for a “new beginning”? Also not thinking of the expanding and contracting theory of the big bang.
Watching Veritasium and his final analogy with the tea and milk made me wonder, “Why did the early universe begin this movement from low entropy to high entropy? And if both low and high entropy states are both devoid of the time arrow, then how can we know where we are in that story? Also, does the fact that in early conditions of the universe the symmetry of matter to antimatter was broken, does this demonstrate some sort of input from outside the system?”
This is not an attempt at the cosmological proof for a god, I just do not understand yet. This outside the system idea could even be accounted for by the still very mysterious nature of higher dimensionality that I hear about from all these mathematicians. Im largely self taught when it comes to science so I am sure my thoughts are scattered. Sorry about that.
I am really surprised at how much praise this long and convoluted video has received. The true meaning and understanding is entropy is much simpler and all you have to do is take a few seconds to look up the definition of the word: “the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity. Entropy is the general trend of the universe toward death and disorder”. It is a simple concept to understand by just observing the leaves on a deciduous tree over the course of a year or by reading the poem Ozymandias - eventually everything runs out of energy and falls apart. It is a basic universal law.
This video literally summed up my last four years worth of lecture courses. It's like seeing your academic life flashing before your eyes, but with better animation.
And for free
Black Holes grow even without eating ordinary matter. Therefore, gravitational forces can reverse entropy after reducing the amount of Dark Matter.
That's how I feel when my s.o. talks to me about anything. At the end of being talked at nonstop for several minutes, I can clearly, completely and accurately sum the entire talk up into 1 sentence. Don't waste time. Most precious resource in existence to us. Just jump to the point😂
i hope he didnt say entropy every time he talks about entropy. it always confuses me everytime the word high and low entropy is mentioned. he should have used "spread of energy is low/high" or something.
@@zjpdarkblaze It was necessary for him to use that term, since everything is framed in terms of 'states'. An earlier state of time = low entropy; later = high entropy. Spread of energy is just more words to say same thing.
The analogy with the tea at the end is mind blowing for me. As an engineering student I knew that entropy caused the milk and tea to mix so spectacularly, but I never related it with our lives being in this spectacular state before heat death eventually happens. It takes the perfect knowledge and some beautiful articulation to explain such things!!! What a video!!!
It is also an absolutely perfect and instantaneous refutation of the old creationist argument that the emergence of life by natural selection supposedly violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
Interestingly this is the exact same example Sabine Hossenfelder used in her video about entropy 2 weeks ago. Overall the 2 videos are very similar 🤷♂️
I also learned a lot about entropy as a materials science student. A key piece that's been left out is that some entropy generating processes are fundamentally not reversible, and so they can't be used to generate work. Mixing milk and tea is a good example. When you mix milk and tea, the entropy increases quite a bit. However, it doesn't release heat, and you can't use the mixing of tea and milk to do work. If you wanted to separate the milk and tea however, you would need to do quite a bit of work.
The point is a lot of entropy is being produced all the time even without the ability to do work. For me, the relevance is in creating alloys, and in refining ores or recycling metals. It takes a lot of chemical and heat energy to separate elements into pure forms. Then you combine them together in mixtures with various properties, but you don't get any of that energy back.
I wonder what the next universe is going to be like.
Physics is interesting but can only play by the rules of this current reality.
@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist9Amen 🙏
the tea and milk demonstration to show that complexity comes between low and high entropy was beautiful and made so much sense. the hot pool of matter at the beginning of the universe was not complex, neither will be the heat death, but in between we have the formation of beautiful stars and galaxies, just like the clouds of mixing tea and milk. amazing!
Both just a theory, though. Overall one that just ignores the real problem: what was/is outside that "hot pool of matter" and the universe - and again: where did it came from.
It's not explanation, just as evolution doesn't explain how life came into existence in the first place, it just shows how life changes, not how "no life" became "life".
It took me years to wrap my head around the concept of Entropy.
What helped me the most was studying the history of the concept.
This video is an accurate summary of what entropy is.
-ISNT IT STUNNING VIDEO?!)-
I still dont understand it lol
@@Gave-rf1hrhow not? Or which part?
@@DBeskar6605if u have 138 iq, then u will observe and decide u won't believe those sentences blindly lol
heYYY
22:24 Wait...If Hawking was wrong Bekenstein was right, shouldn't it be called "Bekenstein radiation"?
I agree
He couldnt prove it
My god….. The way you explained the Kelvin scale was just so effortlessly intuitive, simple, yet insanely informative. You are an absolute treasure to humanity.
The part where Hawking attempts to disprove Bekenstein but eventually ends up proving his theory leading to one of the best discoveries in Physics will always be a jaw dropping story for me! This is exactly why I took a degree in physics!
This is why science works. It has the power to correct and change with new insights.
@@sander_bouwhuismath
Hawking's jaw dropped too💀 (I'm sorry for this awful joke)
"Oh dang, guess he was right"
Happens ridiculously frequently
Fun fact with the rubiks cube metaphor: it eventually bottoms out on how unsolved a cube can be because the maximum distance a state can be from the solution is 20 moves. So once you reach 20, any move you make either maintains or decreases that number.
What if you smash the cube?
@@Tony-il8ly 🤓
What happens to the entropy if you solve to cube by removing the stickers? :P
@@XtreeM_FaiL the cube owner becomes quite angry so the entropy moves there
So my life peaked at age 20? That’s deep
im a dropout with a 10th grade level education but i feel that videos like these keep me from letting my mind rot. understanding the world around you is so important and you're doing a great job teaching
Derek is an international treasure. This is what it looks like when a really smart person goes into teaching.
I disagree. You have thousands of "really smart people" who just don't teach that well despite choosing this path. Geniuses even. He's special when it comes to these videos.
No human is smart, otherwise we would live in a perfect world...look at the mess, past, present and if God does not intervene the future is unimaginable.
Only God is smart, agree ?
Believe the ONLY gospel that saves today which is 1 Cor15 vs1-4 KJV Bible.
There are plenty brilliant men that can't teach. This is what happens when a talented teacher, along with a team of solid, educated and talented group of support staff create an educational video (with endless hours of time put into the project) .... this is teamwork, talents and time. No university professor could compare in a lecture. Impossible.
@@calamorta He and his entire support staff. This isn't a one man operational and took a lot of time and effort.
@@dennisklopper1818Well, you're the one who's definitely not smart if you believe that nonsense 😅
I still remember my first lecture on thermodynamics during my masters. My professor asked us do we know what entropy means, everyone said yes. He replied what you learned is wrong forget about it and started explaining about entropy for 30mins. In the end we understood that we really misunderstood what entropy is in our undergrad
entropy is when everything tends toward death and destruction grr 😡😡
Stephan doesn't get enough credit
. v!😅.
@@bonkmeabeab3563 Degree of randomness
now tell us 😁
The quote "Nothing happens. And it keeps not happening, forever..." still chills me and really puts 'Heat Death' into perspective.
Keep in mind that it requires the universe to be expanding or staying the same size for it to happen. There's still a chance that the universe isn't going to expand forever, and even in a state of heat death it may contract, pushing everything back together into a state of low probability.
Given enough time, all probabilities will happen. I see no reason why this wouldn't also.
@@vanyel_etc8695given enough time, all mathematically possible things CAN happen. Not all mathematically possible things will happen, as the occurrence of one can and often does prevent the occurrence of another.
On the upside, nothing happening includes nothing capable of having an existential crises about nothing happening :D.
@@vanyel_etc8695when the universe stop expanding i think we have reach max entropy
You should read Stephen Baxter. He wrote some amazing novels that cover the consequences of the heat death. I think the specific title was "Time", though his other notes are equally as good and cover other big cosmological subjects.
wow, before seeing this, I thought I understood entropy, and estimated that life decreases entropy (by concentrating energy); but with your explantion here, I've flipped my mind 180 degrees....as life grows, energy actually dissapates...increasing entropy. You truely are the best science communicator Derek, I hope you keep going with your channel, I've learned so much over the past few years, but this was the best, a eureka moment for me, not even Prof. Brian Cox's vid on entropy did it for me, but you have...keep of the great work mate
This is easily one of the best pieces of content I’ve ever witnessed. Engineering thermodynamics 1 was a fun class and I had a great professor, but it left me still wondering what entropy really was. This video so elegantly explained entropy, important universal concepts, and the history behind the names we read in textbooks. Absolutely beautiful.
Bro thermodynamics is not fun 🤣. Fluid mechanics is where it’s at
I was thinking the same exact thing lol
A few problems:
1. Entropy has never been observed to reverse without deliberate intervention. This flies in the face of the ‘it can all happen itself given enough time and energy’ fallacy.
2. 19:09 - This is an especially egregious case of pseudo-intellectualism. It is quite frankly shocking that it is included as a credible statement. Just because life (while living) is compatible with the second law of thermodynamics. It does not address the so-far unexplained way life as a complex orderly system can arise in the presence of the second law; which is expressly hostile to such complexity arising, and expressly favorable to it decaying.
Yes, life helps dissipate heat energy. But nothing here has spoken to how this dissipation (entropy) is anything other than extremely hostile to the arising of complex orderly systems such as life.
This is like saying: “since petrol makes a car run, petrol explains how a car was created”
3. It is impossible that all energy from the sun is emitted back away from the earth. Some is converted into geological formations such as coal. And if you claim that that will get emitted one day when the earth explodes - then the entire question posed to the public at the start is ridiculously impractical.
4. 23:50 -Celestial bodies break up all the time. Comets have been filmed breaking up in space.
@@personal45281. Entropy has never been reversed for CLOSE systems. It's possible for it to reverse but as said in the video. The probability is next to 0.
2. He was making a hypothesis that the 2nd law of thermodynamics maybe the cause of life. Now we don't know if it's cause and effect or just correlation.
But including this in the video isn't a huge issue, might not be entirely correct but something to ponder about nonetheless.
3. It was never stated that the energy is entirely emitted away from the earth. It was stated that Most of the energy is emitted/dispersed away from the earth while some is taken in to sustain life and other processes.
4. Again, you need to listen properly, he said that celestial bodies break up all the time and the reverse isn't possible.
I hope your doubts are cleared.
@@kgv5179 1. no, read carefully: Entropy has NEVER been observed to reverse without deliberate intervention. Name a single observed, non-hypothetical instance of spontaneous entropy reversal without intervention from an designed method. Furthermore, the universe is a closed system. To say that the second law of thermodynamics does not permeate in a scalable manner across the universe is grade school level nonsense.
2. No it was not a hypotheses. It was an ignorant conclusion based on no data, and should be derided as such.
3. 17:17 he says the same amount gets emitted. Again false. Some becomes geological as coal.
4. 23:55 "we never see... a planet unmix into the cloud of dust and gas that made it up" - false. Comets sublimate into nothing. Stars supernova. Decay is everywhere. This is a slight of hand to try make entropy the opposite of decay, when in fact it is the greatest facilitator of decay.
It's one of the best explanations of entropy for people who don't have a physics background, with many philosophical notes.
Not necessarily true. The best way to explain entropic systems is in the form of clocks, watches, and wind-up toys that run down and stop when the energy in their spring or their battery is spent. That's the effect of entropy. 😊
well even at the beginning he's already using symbols used in calculus and what not. You do have to have some background, at least from high school.
@@jedcasillas5171 I disagree, I'm dumb as bricks and I still came away more or less understanding what Entropy is now.
@@jedcasillas5171it was only a part of it, you could understand this video with or without calculus. You’d miss out on some mathematical details, but the premise is still clear.
Wtf. I wish I didn't understand this
This video is a masterpiece. It´s by far the best explanation of entropy I´ve seen on youtube, going through the most important concepts in several semesters of physics, and it explains it both in simple layman´s terms, but also through the relevant equations, while giving them a graphical representation. It´s honestly really impressive science communication. And I love the old school Veritaseum interviews of random people, who express our own questions and confusion. Well done!
@@feynman_QEDbut just right for those who know a little bit and are looking to learn more.
I remember learning about entropy in middle school. I had no idea what it is. Why is "chaos" a thing in physics. This video actually explained it to me.
@@feynman_QEDou have to be so boring and pedantic about it? In the world we live in not everyone should have deep and intimate understanding of every topic of science. Videos like this DO give actual knowledge to viewers, albeit on a surface level, but that surface level actually gives a lot of benefits. Specifically - widening persons world view, satisfying and at the same time encouraging very useful need for learning new things and also allowing person to engage in simple discussions about explained topics. It also definitely gives an ability to solve simple problems on this topic or explain it to someone else.
There is rarely any need for an average Joe like me or you to know about topics like this in more detail, but if you would need it - videos like these are still useful because that surface level knowledge allows you to point yourself in the right direction for learning further.
People being overconfident about their knowledge of topics have nothing to do with Popular Science, only with their own arrogance that they need to coreect themselves.
@@feynman_QEDwhich books would you recommend to start studying physics, I am interested in doing so and I would like to know your opinions
@@feynman_QEDwell I like being challenged by complicated ideas like these, dont really know what your suggesting, that they dumb down these videos, and oversimplify them to the point that they become inaccurate?
This is, by far, one of my favourite Veritasium videos, and I tend to re-watch it every now and then.
Hello Derek. When I was in high school I watched some of your videos, and you were part of the reason why I chose to study Physics. 5 years later, with a lot of effort, I graduated, but in the way I forgot that joy of wanting to know. These videos you're making recently remind me of that curiosity I had back then that drew me to physics, and why I use it as a compass to understand the universe in a philosophical level. Thank you for all the work through the years. I'm sure that like me, thousands of people have been inspired to get into Physics thanks to you.
Just remember, learning is one of the most enjoyable human activities - and unfortunately sometimes schools tend to beat the fun out of learning. Glad you're getting the fun back.
202 likes and 1 reply lemme fix that
@@adamplace1414yeah
Look into Donald Hoffman's work if you want to get proper philosophical :)
"forgot that joy of wanting to know", wow, that phrase makes me feel bad about what you've been through bruv.
By far one of the most thought provoking episodes I’ve ever seen. Loved every second of it.
This man never stops to amaze me, to have not only the capacity to have this broad understanding of the physical world, but also have the social and verbal skills to be a grasping storyteller. I've been following you for years and you sir, are a modern day hero and nothing less. Well done!
Ever heard of ghost writers
@@a2sbestos768Ghosts aren't real.
Pull your tongue out of his a*sehole, Gary!
@@ChainsawChristmasyeah ghosts aren’t real. So how could they be writers??
Couldn’t agree more. He has a way of making things kinda possible to understand
In my first year in technical collage in Finland in 1977 we were lectured about the Carnot machine. I did not really get it, and I remember how it bothered me. I do now, what a relief, 47 years later. Thank you.
I studied aerospace engineering in college and went on to get my masters degree in biomedical engineering before going to medical school. I’ve been practicing Internal Medicine for 24 years. My last course in thermodynamics was approximately 30-35 years ago, and I haven’t even THOUGHT about thermodynamics and entropy since that time. But I can honestly say this was the single best explanation I’ve ever heard or seen in my lifetime. This was a truly EXCELLENT Veritassium video, Derek - probably one of your BEST! Thank you so much for your illuminating videos and all the work you do. I believe if everyone on earth would take a few minutes each day to watch your videos and to try to understand the nature of the universe, we would all be better off. The ignorance and sheer stupidity that exists in our world is probably our biggest problem as a civilization.
* sheer 😁
@@stephensmith7293 Oops! Thank you! I guess I’m one of the people who demonstrates that SHEER stupidity better than anyone!
and the lack of publicly funded higher education!
I concur...money is the hardest form of energy to hold and maintain, by the way. LOL
So you didnt know what career to pursue during your university years? This is more common than what you think
16:20 the introduction of the sun did not need to go that hard. I almost got goosebumps, lol.
This was a beautifully done video and loved every second.
That is quite LITERALLY what I was thinking. I know next to nothing about physics and after watching this video I felt my IQ jump up about 100 points. LOL
lol me to
It's THAT important though... that's why he went that hard imo...
The sun is a wondrous body. Like a magnificent father! If only I could be so grossly incandescent!
Soo true
I’m an HVAC operating engineer and I’m always so impressed how the process is based on a genius manipulation of core physics principles. Almost everything we do is based on using physics to manipulate things to our purposes.
I haven't looked it up or anything, but I've heard that HVAC is essentially transferring heat from one place to another...or making a massive group of atoms and molecules vibrate less via transferring their shakiness to another massive group of atoms/molecules somewhere eslse. What I don't get is how that transferring process is performed in a machine made out of stuff we can and do produce on a massive scale. I mean, I can heat up an ice cube with my hand to perform rudimentary HVAC stuff by just holding it for awhile...but how the hell do I make the ice cube even colder than it was via transferring its thermal energy someplace else somehow?
@@dakotadillon5981 Well you’re already some of the way there understanding molecules moving and heat energy. HVAC pretty much is entirely based on the pressure temperature relationship. The higher the pressure the higher the temperature. In HVAC a machine will have a refrigerant that has properties that are beneficial for us when manipulating its pressure. The machine will act as a pump rapidly reducing the pressure of the refrigerant causing the gas to expand and release a tremendous amount of energy creating a cooling effect. Think liquid nitrogen. Once it’s exposed to our natural atmosphere the pressure holding the molecules is lower allowing it to expand and become very cold. Refrigerant will do this in the machine and become cold. Then it will be exposed to a cooling medium which in your home is the air inside. Another law of thermodynamics: Heat will always transfer from the warmer body to the colder body. The heat in the air will transfer to the cold refrigerant. The machine will pump the refrigerant back to a much higher pressure. This higher pressure will allow it to condense at a relatively high temperature back into a liquid refrigerant at which point it rejects heat away from the condenser to a place where it is less objectionable like outside your home. I always say that hvac machines act as a heat energy vacuum, pulling heat energy from where we don’t want it and placing it where it’s no longer a nuisance to us.
It is essential to understand when changing states from a liquid to a gas/ vapor a large amount of energy is released. Like water refrigerant will boil off and condense at different temperatures based on the pressure it’s under. A higher pressure creates a higher boiling point as the pressure is acting on the molecules not allowing them to expand and cool down. This is why we sweat not because our sweat on our skin makes us lose heat but when the sweat evaporates from our skin energy is released creating a cooling effect for us. Since there is no such thing as cold ( just the absence of heat ) if you lower the pressure the molecules will have more space between them which creates the cold condition. The earths atmosphere acts as a kind of container trapping heat and applying pressure allowing heat energy from the sun to remain and warm our surroundings. One of the many reasons earth is such a special place.
This is a fairly poor explanation of Refrigeration theory but really I just want to illustrate that it wouldn’t be possible without physics and how what we know about the physical world informs how we can manipulate this science to our benefit and understanding.
@@dakotadillon5981 Let's break down the HVAC process:
Basic Principle: Everything is made up of atoms and molecules. When these atoms and molecules move or vibrate quickly, we perceive that as heat. When they move slowly, we perceive it as cold. The goal of HVAC systems is to control the speed at which these atoms and molecules move, thereby controlling the temperature.
How HVAC Works:
Heating: This is straightforward. You add energy (like burning gas or using electricity to produce heat) to make molecules move faster.
Cooling: This is where it gets interesting. To cool a space, you need to remove heat from it. This is done using a process called refrigeration.
Refrigeration Cycle:
Evaporation: Inside the part of the HVAC system that's meant to cool (like the inside of your fridge or the indoor unit of your air conditioner), there's a coil filled with a special liquid called a refrigerant. This refrigerant evaporates (turns from liquid to gas) and in doing so, it absorbs heat from the surrounding area. This makes the surrounding area cooler.
Compression: This gas is then compressed by a compressor. When you compress a gas, it gets hot (think of it as squeezing the molecules closer together, making them move faster).
Condensation: This hot gas then flows to another coil, usually outside your house or the back of your fridge. Here, the gas condenses back into a liquid, releasing the heat it absorbed earlier. This is why the back of your fridge is warm.
Expansion: The liquid refrigerant then goes through an expansion valve, where it expands and cools down, ready to evaporate again and absorb more heat.
Your Ice Cube Analogy: When you hold an ice cube, your hand is warmer than the ice, so heat flows from your hand to the ice, melting it. To make the ice cube even colder, you'd need to remove heat from it. That's what freezers do. They use the refrigeration cycle to continually remove heat from the inside, making it colder and colder.
In essence, HVAC systems are sophisticated ways of controlling where heat goes, either adding it to a space or removing it. The machinery and chemicals we use (like refrigerants) are specifically designed to be efficient at this heat transfer process.
Your hand can both give off and absorb heat, depending on the circumstances. Here's how your hand can remove heat:
Difference in Temperature: Heat naturally flows from a hotter object to a colder one. If your hand is colder than another object, heat will flow from that object to your hand until they reach thermal equilibrium (i.e., they are the same temperature).
Conduction: When you touch something, heat can be transferred directly through the materials involved. This is why a metal spoon feels cold when you first pick it up from a drawer - it's conducting the heat away from your hand.
Convection: If your hand is cooler than the surrounding air, it can absorb heat from the air. This is especially true if there's airflow. For example, if you've ever wet your hand and then waved it in the air, you've felt it get cooler. This is because the water is evaporating (which requires heat) and the moving air is carrying away the heat.
Radiation: All objects emit infrared radiation. The amount and wavelength of this radiation depend on the object's temperature. If your hand is cooler than its surroundings, it will absorb more radiation than it emits.
Evaporation: This is a significant way your body, including your hands, cools down. When you sweat, the sweat evaporates, which requires heat. This heat is taken from your skin, cooling it down. If you've ever put rubbing alcohol on your skin, you've felt this effect strongly, as alcohol evaporates faster than water.
However, it's important to note that while your hand can remove heat from objects warmer than it, it's not as efficient as the mechanisms used in HVAC systems. The human body is designed to maintain a relatively constant internal temperature, so while it has mechanisms to shed excess heat or generate warmth when needed, it's not designed to function as a refrigeration device.
Cooling an ice cube with a human hand presents a paradoxical scenario. Under typical conditions, a human hand is warmer than an ice cube, so if you were to hold an ice cube, heat would transfer from your hand to the ice, causing the ice to melt. Let's entertain the idea of a human hand cooling an ice cube. Here's what would need to happen:
Hand Temperature: The temperature of the hand would need to be lower than the ice cube. This means the hand would need to be colder than 0°C (32°F). This is not a natural or safe state for human tissue. Prolonged exposure to such temperatures can lead to frostbite.
Heat Transfer: If the hand were colder than the ice cube, heat would flow from the ice cube to the hand, causing the ice cube to become even colder. The rate of this heat transfer would depend on the difference in temperature between the hand and the ice cube.
External Factors: The surrounding environment would play a role. If the ambient temperature is warmer than the ice cube, the ice cube would also be gaining heat from the environment. To effectively cool the ice cube, you'd want to minimize this external heat gain.
In reality, achieving this scenario would be highly impractical and potentially harmful. The human body is not designed to function at temperatures below freezing.
@@dakotadillon5981have you ever held a can of air duster upside down and sprayed it? Mysteriously cold right? Start there, but close the system as you think through it. Remember the components of an air conditioner e.g. compressor, Freon, etc. It'll make sense to you.
@@dakotadillon5981the channel Technology Connection has a really good video explaining how it works if you are interested
Stephen Wolfram's explanation of entropy has been the most satisfying explanation I've ever heard.
I am a physicist myself, having been trained 20 years ago, this video was interesting and helped me brush up the concept of entropy. It's all well and good to understand the math, but having it illustrated the way it is in this video is very useful. Thank you.
But it's so elementary. This is below basic
@@skydyverjym Thanks Mr D. Kruger. Just because Veritasium broke it down for you on a low level doesn't mean you understand. Why dont you tell us how Sgen (kJ/K) = dQ/T was derived?
@@coolaidmedic5553 "Mr. D. Kruger" 😄👍
what do you guys research about?why you cant discover anything significant since einstein?What did you do in the past 20 years?
@@aduts1177 Jesse, what the hell are you talking about?
This channel has become truly incredible over the past couple of years. It was always great, but the increased frequency of uploads and high production quality is amazing. Shout-out to the entire Veritasium team!
It was always great, has only gotten better over the years!
@@erock7073 So, what he said. 👍
This one video helped answer soooo many questions, at the level of both physics and philosophy. Thank you for all the interesting work you do and help us understand our world a little better!
Thank you! Glad to hear this video helped!
Thank you so much for recommending Brilliant. Extremely helpful for newbie like me to learn data analysis with vivid illustrations and practical examples❤. It’s been a pretty long time since I can concentrate on watching a long video like this.😊
My God Derrick, this is one of your best videos yet. You’re the only content creator that I actively check to see if you have any new content. Your last few videos have been interesting, but this kind of extremely competently explained mind blowing content is some of your best work. You truly have a talent like no other.
derrick
After a few of his recent videos i thought he is done. But he surprised me with this amazing video
When I was like 9 or 10, I had this little series of books that basically explained different science concepts in a kid-friendly way and after reading the physics one, I kept telling my mom my room was always messy because of entropy 😭😭
edit: for anyone interested in the books, they’re from the Basher Science series!
that's cute
I know right🥲@@whoreslayer
haha, I tried this but got beaten up
i always said it was a creative mess xD
By any chance, do you still have the names of the books? I would be interested in reading them.
Great video Derek! Keep up the good work💯
Thank you! Will do!
Kiitos!
Oh, the beauty of teaching with today’s graphics. So much better than when I studied these concepts in the early seventies. Back then these could only be pictures in our minds.
it must have been so cool to experience the transition from black and white textbook image to graphics in today’s time
@@nuggetz9380 Yeah, cool to be old.
The diaspora of man's convictions being cradled into submission longs to be discovered through the vicariousness of Terran Myths:Inception. Farewell🙏
@@robertmudrow8034 in a way, yes it is
@@nuggetz9380But now we'll get to experience going from a video to VR or whatever the future holds for us lol
This is officially my favorite channel on TH-cam. Science and history, combined majestically on a series of videos. This is amazing.
Vsauce used to do it as well, then it got pay to watch...
But in my opinion this channel doesn't get the amount of love or followers it should be having.
@@Proxoapay to watch was just for a few seasons of Mind Field. He just doesn't want to make long videos anymore
I had 2 years of thermodynamics in highschool and understood more in a half hour yt video. Thank you Derek as always for posting such awesome content
I am currently pursuing electrical engineering course and I have come across thermodynamic unit and is really awesome
That's *likely* because a teenage brain is not equipped for abstract thought needed to grasp concepts such as entropy. That is, even if Derek was your secondary physics teacher, it's still more likely you would not have gotten the explanation of entropy.
Science can be enjoyed more when you're past 20.
@@shadewood3083exactly. im in first year of high school and our chemistry teacher is an absolute GOD. he explained all the concepts mentioned in the video to us during our thermodynamics lectures and the way he explains it is just beautiful. he's been teaching multiple classes since 2003, yet the gleam in his eyes when he explains second law of thermodynamics to us is incredibly inspiring. like he's been teaching THIS long and he's still like, "isn't science amazing?"
@@mimichalek a teenage brain is only lacking development in the prefrontal cortex which regulates thoughts, actions and emotions... they are not dumb, just emotionally chaotic and bad at judging consequences
But don't people know that heat through sunlight comes in from the sun during the day and radiates out to space at night? That answers the premise that he starts this video on.
The idea that earth re-radiates the same amount of received energy bypasses photosynthesis. Immediately, we can appreciate that earthlings (first plants) store solar energy. Some is also converted to kinetic energy of the earth's core and tectonic system.
the three laws of thermodynamics:
1. you can't win
2. you can't break even
3. you can't stop playing the game
A black hole entered the chat 😅
@@PlanetHertz is it bad🥺??
Only if you're in an enclosed environment ...
Lmaooo the gambling versions of the laws. My professor had a bonus point opportunity to try and come up with a gambling version of the zeroeth law. Forgot about these and that till I read this, thank u
Survive is a losing battle💀
I have a masters in chemical engineering and struggled to understand this for years. This is the most elegant and beautiful and logical explanation of thermodynamics I have ever seen and heard.
Altho it goes more on a quantum level, I really liked Carlo Rovelli’s explanation in “The order of time”. Even he mentions how there is not such a thing as arrow of time but instead the illusion of it depending on the scale you examine a system.
I'm getting my bachelors in chemical engineering right now! im currently a sophomore and taking thermodynamics, thought this was really cool
I have a ChemEng masters and actually really enjoyed thermodynamics (great lecturer, always helps).
I still learned something from this.
I do feel it rather skipped over the fact that, aside from fossil fuels and nuclear, the sun's incident energy is all that we get. Therefore it should be considered something of a budget, in synergy with the planet's existing energy systems and with total respect for this concept of entropy (economists in particular need to learn this).
Especially now given the increasing challenge with climate change.
well, the glory of physics is just changing your timelines to make it correct. So in terms of chemical engineering, this is a vast oversimplification based on extending the timeline to make it net out. Instead, you have to be practical
How do you get a master's in any engineering field and not understand freshman thermodynamics? It's super basic stuff.
15:47 to 16:27 . That has to be one of the best cinematography I've ever seen. The narration, the visuals and the background music especially. Best build up to reveal the Star of the talk (quite literally)
so true i am in my last year of highschool and understood entropy for the first time and it felt like an movie
If you thought the cinematography was really good here I'd watch Interstellar if you haven't already, easily the best depiction of the universe I have ever seen
I watched this video like 20 times now and it still gives me goosebumps every times
You're right! It Was nicely done! Wasn't trying to hear a physics lecture at the moment, but it was so well done, it really kept my attention. Can't wait to watch it over and over again so I really capture all of it.
I watched this part so often thank you man
Easily top 3 best channel. Incredibly well done.
Finally I have understood entropy as a concept. All other TH-camrs failed to talk me through. They often use a mixed chocolate as explanation to why entropy will only increase, but I thought things actual condense after a while and gravity could always put things together. Amazing job.
the villain was the gravity all along...
The terrifying thing about this is: imagine how many people got taught entropy & science in this terribly not understandable wrong way. And now think: all generations before us are 90% victims to this teachings. And they lead us.
@@lucelxebinoghmm..
I personally got to understand it thanks to an Spanish youtube channel: QuantumFracture
Yeah but its a bit left uncompleted cause he spoke about gravity but he didnt speak about black energy nor how it is lately found to actually be decreasing in its acceleration. So technically speaking if this continues in the faaaar future it could be possible after the continuous expansion finishes, and black energy is no longer more "powerful" than gravity that a single universal singularity is made and the cycle is renewed once again
This is easily one of the best explanations of the Carnot engine and entropy making them very easy to understand. It pulls so much of Thermodynamics and history together in a succinct way that only now can I actually connect so many dots in my undergrad physics and pchem courses. Not to mention the incredibly high quality visuals and examples. One of the best channels on TH-cam hands down, thank you Veritasium!!!
I agree with you completely on the Carnot engine presentation; the best I've ever seen. However, I wish Derek had stopped around 14'00" (at the Rubik's Cube) before wandering off into La La land; the cosmologists (not astrophysicists or astronomers I hasten to add) bend conjecture to their will and use declarative language about their wildest speculations without even a hint of humility; it's like they've decided the scientific process doesn't apply to them anymore.
That La la land bit actually includes some more fundamental physics. 17:26 explains where all our low entropy 'energy' originated from and where all our high entropy is today!
I have a masters degree in energy studies and this is the first time I have seen such an illustrative explanation of the concept of entropy, i actually learned something - great job!
Why should 25:40 we "make use of the low entropy while we can" when entropy will eventually eliminate us and everything we did?
Because why not?
@@jamespauly728 Burden on the affirmative.
dude give the editor a raise, this might be one of the best videos you've ever made
Agreed
@kwokshseeHe used plain language so everyone could understand.
@@moonwalking1929it’s a bait comment
@kwokshsee riddle me this, kwokshsee. a solid material like my desk here has lower entropy than my coffee which is liquid. particles in my desk are surely more "clumped" than those in my coffee which are more "spread out".
also i imagine you just being like umm actually 🤓entropy is higher when particles get more _freedom!_
lmao, when particles or energy are more "spread out" they will be able to fill more space, making it "less predictable", at the same time giving it "more freedom" to move around compared to when particles are "clumped". guy making the video isn't wrong, you just like to sugarcoat your words. what are you on smh
just let everyone enjoy science, man
I know right! My jaw was on the floor for most of this video. Those shots, clips and animations were spectacular
I've been casually reading about entropy as a non-expert in popular physics books for decades. This is the best explanation I have ever heard. And the first one that made lots of sense. It sends shivers up my spine.
This is one of the moments when I felt that the like button is not enough to appreciate his work. Thanks.
donate 😉
click the three dots and hit a super chat ;) (thanks)
@@PaulWebsterLincolnuumu
Just a great presentation.
Engaging.
Simple.
Educational.
M
Trust me, a good teacher will change your life. We had a really good chemistry teacher in my last high school year and she was amazing, you could understand everything because of how she teaches and does things, but sadly we only had her for a semester. Still today, I appreciate her so much. Love you ma'am G!
Entropy has always allowed me to make sense of the world around me. I love how you explained it here and love all your work.
I would love it if you added names of institutions that take donations to support research in the topic of the video.
Thanks again for spreading the knowledge.
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed the video!
It's mostly unlikely that you will see this comment but, I have been watching since a very long time, the way you make science videos so interesting is mesmerizing. The Production that goes behind, the writing, editing and music combined makes it no less then a sci-fi movie by a huge production house. Thanks for making these videos. Never stop
BE READY TO BECOME FAMOUS BECAUSE I REPLIED... I HAVE BEEN WATCHING SINCE 2020
Your comment defies entropy, as it is interesting!
It's amazing that I get to watch such a high quality content in 4k packed with tons of information. This 30 min video made thermodynamics far more interesting. This video is so good that if I were in grade school I would be interested in learning more about thermodynamics after watching this.
I don’t know if it’s because I studied this but I found this video way above the others in term of quality. I can’t quite point out why, butvit was phenomenal in term of production yes.
14:28 Not quite accurate, there are multiple ways for the cube to be solved, the center parts can be in different orientations. There are some extra steps you need to do to make sure a cube with for example pictures on all sides is properly solved vs a cube with just flat colors.
This is the kind of content that should be on TV. You deserve a PhD in eduation as well.
His PhD is in physics education
Don't give him ideas! The content is where it belongs; accessible to everyone for free and unfettered by the meddling hands of executives.
PURE BS
Incident solar energy is stored in earth as potential energy of petroleum & coal.
Gravity crestes Ultra missive Black holes & their explosion is the big bang that creates universe & this process is the source of entropy reduction.
Yeah I think he's being a bit vague with his PhD in this video, but it was actually in education. He's not what you will think of when someone says Physicist.
@@manojlds I understand where you're coming from but his PhD was actually in Physics. "Physics Education Research" is only a research area of the Physics Department (just Google sydney university SUPER group). You still need to take graduate-level Physics courses for that as all the others Physics students. And a PhD in Education is not a thing in most universities. Just looked all this up myself.
Thank you so much for creating such great educational video! One of the best physics video i have ever watch
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@@Laeiryn280INR
better than nothing :)@@Laeiryn
@@Laeirynbro said indonesian rupees lol
@@nightknight3414 Close enough, I'd say.
This is beautiful.
Honestly, when you got to the probabilities explanation and brought statistics into this I was absolutely amazed by how simple to understand this was.
Thank you for making this video.
The crux of complex life, however, to reverse energy comes down to genetics. The number of all possible gene arrangements unimaginably outnumbers all those that could have occurred across all organisms that could have existed on earth despite a period of 4 billion years. Do the math. The dilemma? Despite this realitively immense small number of gene arrangements that ever existed, arrangements of such that produced increasingly evolving complex life through random changes emerged. This could not have occurred based on a Darwinian natural selection search engine alone to produce so many successful complex life forms with such relatively few tries. Its all a matter of entropy. The probability is to low. Neither could any known natural or man made algorithm weed out such evolving life forms in so few tries. Its not even close. God exists, and so does evil, as evident in the fact billions of people will soon destroy each other with the help of high-tech. Realize the same evil is in you and accept the blood of Jesus to redeem you while time remains.
this was such a great video! I learned that 1.) Entropy isnt just disorder or chaos that our science classes used to teach us in secondary education and 2.) the cosmic horror of the impending heat death of the universe which is suprisingly not nilhility but apparently dullness. I guess I'm not sleeping tonight.
"The Last Question", a short story by Isaac Asimov, explores the human questioning of entropy in an inspiring way. Thanks for such a beautiful and clarifying video!