- #1
Tyrone
- 5
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I recently caught Brian Cox in BBC's Wonders of the Universe. I got caught on the heat death theory of the end of the universe.
I understand the concept of entropy and that the universe is heading toward a state of maximum entropy.
Cox used the example of desert sand to illustrate high entropy and a structured sand castle for low entropy. But he then went on to explain that there is nothing stopping individual grains of sand spontaneously forming the exact same castle - a low entropy structure, it's just extremely unlikely, due to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, that everything tends toward high entropy rather than low entropy.
My question is, on a long enough timeline, following heat death and achieving maximum entropy, would it be possible, no matter how unlikely or how long the time frame, that the low potential radiation energy left as the only property of our universe could spontaneously form a low entropy state, kick starting a chain of events resulting in universe 2.0 (or x.0), as all the universe's energy still exists, just in a state of low potential energy which could be influenced by this low entropy state?
Is heat death the ultimate endgame? Do we know?
Thanks
I understand the concept of entropy and that the universe is heading toward a state of maximum entropy.
Cox used the example of desert sand to illustrate high entropy and a structured sand castle for low entropy. But he then went on to explain that there is nothing stopping individual grains of sand spontaneously forming the exact same castle - a low entropy structure, it's just extremely unlikely, due to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, that everything tends toward high entropy rather than low entropy.
My question is, on a long enough timeline, following heat death and achieving maximum entropy, would it be possible, no matter how unlikely or how long the time frame, that the low potential radiation energy left as the only property of our universe could spontaneously form a low entropy state, kick starting a chain of events resulting in universe 2.0 (or x.0), as all the universe's energy still exists, just in a state of low potential energy which could be influenced by this low entropy state?
Is heat death the ultimate endgame? Do we know?
Thanks