- #1
LukeD
- 355
- 3
So I don't understand what all the craze is about entropic forces because as far as I can tell, they're nothing new.
All forces as we understand them are caused by a large number of particles. The electric force is due to the interactions of large numbers of photons; the weak force due to large numbers of W & Z bosons; etc. We have their distributions, and we can calculate their entropies. These entropies carry laws of their own that we can derive using statistical mechanics.
If we look at the entropies of the standard model, don't we find "entropic forces" there as well?
Am I missing something? Is there something that these entropic forces do that can't be done with statistical mechanics that forces us to adopt a new picture?
I've heard the area laws of gravity are weird, but... at worst that should tell us that we should be counting things differently..
All forces as we understand them are caused by a large number of particles. The electric force is due to the interactions of large numbers of photons; the weak force due to large numbers of W & Z bosons; etc. We have their distributions, and we can calculate their entropies. These entropies carry laws of their own that we can derive using statistical mechanics.
If we look at the entropies of the standard model, don't we find "entropic forces" there as well?
Am I missing something? Is there something that these entropic forces do that can't be done with statistical mechanics that forces us to adopt a new picture?
I've heard the area laws of gravity are weird, but... at worst that should tell us that we should be counting things differently..