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Heat Death Paradox
The heat death paradox, also known as thermodynamic paradox, Clausius' paradox, and Kelvin's paradox, is a ''reductio ad absurdum'' argument that uses thermodynamics to show the impossibility of an infinitely old universe. It was formulated in February 1862 by Lord Kelvin and expanded upon by Hermann von Helmholtz and William John Macquorn Rankine. The paradox This theoretical paradox is directed at the then-mainstream strand of belief in a classical view of a '' sempiternal'' universe, whereby its matter is postulated as everlasting and having always been recognisably the universe. Heat death paradox is born of a paradigm resulting from fundamental ideas about the cosmos. It is necessary to change the paradigm to resolve the paradox. The paradox was based upon the rigid mechanical point of view of the second law of thermodynamics postulated by Rudolf Clausius and Lord Kelvin, according to which heat can only be transferred from a warmer to a colder object. It notes: if the uni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reductio Ad Absurdum
In logic, (Latin for "reduction to absurdity"), also known as (Latin for "argument to absurdity") or ''apagogical argument'', is the form of argument that attempts to establish a claim by showing that the opposite scenario would lead to absurdity or contradiction. This argument form traces back to Ancient Greek philosophy and has been used throughout history in both formal mathematical and philosophical reasoning, as well as in debate. In mathematics, the technique is called ''proof by contradiction''. In formal logic, this technique is captured by an axiom for "Reductio ad Absurdum", normally given the abbreviation RAA, which is expressible in propositional logic. This axiom is the introduction rule for negation (see ''negation introduction''). Examples The "absurd" conclusion of a ''reductio ad absurdum'' argument can take a range of forms, as these examples show: * The Earth cannot be flat; otherwise, since the Earth is assumed to be finite in extent, we would find peo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helmholtz
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (; ; 31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894; "von" since 1883) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The Helmholtz Association, the largest German association of research institutions, was named in his honour. In the fields of physiology and psychology, Helmholtz is known for his mathematics concerning the eye, theories of vision, ideas on the visual perception of space, colour vision research, the sensation of tone, perceptions of sound, and empiricism in the physiology of perception. In physics, he is known for his theories on the conservation of energy and on the electrical double layer, work in electrodynamics, chemical thermodynamics, and on a mechanical foundation of thermodynamics. Although credit is shared with Julius von Mayer, James Joule, and Daniel Bernoulli—among others—for the energy conservation principles that eventual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermodynamic Temperature
Thermodynamic temperature, also known as absolute temperature, is a physical quantity which measures temperature starting from absolute zero, the point at which particles have minimal thermal motion. Thermodynamic temperature is typically expressed using the Kelvin scale, where the unit of measurement is the ''kelvin'' (unit symbol: K). The Kelvin scale uses the same degree interval as the Celsius scale but is offset so that 0 K corresponds to absolute zero. For comparison, a temperature of 295 K corresponds to 21.85 °C and 71.33 °F. Another absolute scale of temperature is the Rankine scale, which is based on the Fahrenheit degree interval. Historically, thermodynamic temperature was defined by Lord Kelvin in terms of a macroscopic relation between Work (thermodynamics), thermodynamic work and Heat, heat transfer as defined in thermodynamics, but the kelvin was redefined by international agreement in 2019 in terms of phenomena that are now understood as man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Paradoxes
This list includes well known paradoxes, grouped thematically. The grouping is approximate, as paradoxes may fit into more than one category. This list collects only scenarios that have been called a paradox by at least one source and have their own article in this encyclopedia. These paradoxes may be due to fallacious reasoning (falsidical), or an unintuitive solution (Veridical paradox, veridical). The term ''paradox'' is often used to describe a counter-intuitive result. However, some of these paradoxes qualify to fit into the mainstream viewpoint of a paradox, which is a self-contradictory result gained even while properly applying accepted ways of reasoning. These paradoxes, often called ''antinomy,'' point out genuine problems in our understanding of the ideas of truth and Definite description, description. Logic * : The supposition that, "if one of two simultaneous assumptions leads to a contradiction, the other assumption is also disproved" leads to paradoxical conseq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heat Death Of The Universe
The heat death of the universe (also known as the Big Chill or Big Freeze) is a scientific hypothesis regarding the ultimate fate of the universe which posits the universe will evolve to a state of no thermodynamic free energy and, having reached maximum entropy, will therefore be unable to sustain any further thermodynamic processes. The hypothesized heat death does not imply any particular absolute temperature; it only requires that temperature differences or other processes may no longer be exploited to perform work. In the language of physics, this is when the universe reaches thermodynamic equilibrium. If the curvature of the universe is hyperbolic or flat, or if dark energy is a positive cosmological constant, the universe will continue expanding forever, and a heat death is expected to occur, with the universe cooling to approach equilibrium at a very low temperature after a long time period. The theory of heat death stems from the ideas of Lord Kelvin who, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entropy As An Arrow Of Time
Entropy is one of the few quantities in the physical sciences that require a particular direction for time, sometimes called an arrow of time. As one goes "forward" in time, the second law of thermodynamics says, the entropy of an isolated system can increase, but not decrease. Thus, entropy measurement is a way of distinguishing the past from the future. In thermodynamic systems that are not isolated, local entropy can decrease over time, accompanied by a compensating entropy increase in the surroundings; examples include objects undergoing cooling, living systems, and the formation of typical crystals. Much like temperature, despite being an abstract concept, everyone has an intuitive sense of the effects of entropy. For example, it is often very easy to tell the difference between a video being played forwards or backwards. A video may depict a wood fire that melts a nearby ice block; played in reverse, it would show a puddle of water turning a cloud of smoke into unburnt woo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statistical Fluctuations
Statistical fluctuations are fluctuations in quantities derived from many identical random processes. They are fundamental and unavoidable. It can be proved that the relative fluctuations reduce as the square root of the number of identical processes. Statistical fluctuations are responsible for many results of statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, including phenomena such as shot noise in electronics. Description When a number of random processes occur, it can be shown that the outcomes fluctuate (vary in time) and that the fluctuations are inversely proportional to the square root of the number of processes. The average of fluctuations over a statistical ensemble is always zero as they are defined as deviations from the mean. Measuring Fluctuations To characterize the intensity of fluctuations, several statistical measures are used. The Variance is the most common measure of fluctuation intensity. It's defined as the average of the squared deviations from the mean. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boltzmann Brain
The Boltzmann brain thought experiment suggests that it is probably more likely for a brain to spontaneously form, complete with a memory of having existed in our universe, rather than for the entire universe to come about in the manner cosmologists think it actually did. Physicists use the Boltzmann brain thought experiment as a argument for evaluating competing scientific theories. In contrast to brain in a vat thought experiments, which are about perception and thought, Boltzmann brains are used in cosmology to test our assumptions about thermodynamics and the development of the universe. Over a sufficiently long time, random fluctuations could cause particles to spontaneously form literally any structure of any degree of complexity, including a functioning human brain. The scenario initially involved only a single brain with false memories, but physicist Sean M. Carroll pointed out that, in a fluctuating universe, the scenario works just as well at larger scales, like th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the world". In 1731, German philosopher Christian Wolff used the term cosmology in Latin (''cosmologia'') to denote a branch of metaphysics that deals with the general nature of the physical world. Religious or mythological cosmology is a body of beliefs based on mythological, religious, and esoteric literature and traditions of creation myths and eschatology. In the science of astronomy, cosmology is concerned with the study of the chronology of the universe. Physical cosmology is the study of the observable universe's origin, its large-scale structures and dynamics, and the ultimate fate of the universe, including the laws of science that govern these areas. It is investigated by scientists, including astronomers and physicists, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Static Universe
In cosmology, a static universe (also referred to as stationary, infinite, static infinite or static eternal) is a cosmological model in which the universe is both spatially and temporally infinite, and space is neither expanding nor contracting. Such a universe does not have so-called spatial curvature; that is to say that it is 'flat' or Euclidean. A static infinite universe was first proposed by English astronomer Thomas Digges (1546–1595). In contrast to this model, Albert Einstein proposed a temporally infinite but spatially finite model - ''static eternal universe'' - as his preferred cosmology during 1917, in his paper ''Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity''. After the discovery of the redshift-distance relationship (deduced by the inverse correlation of galactic brightness to redshift) by American astronomers Vesto Slipher and Edwin Hubble, the Belgian astrophysicist and priest Georges Lemaître interpreted the redshift as evidence of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olbers' Paradox
file:Olbers' Paradox - All Points.gif, As more distant stars are revealed in this animation depicting an infinite, homogeneous, and static universe, they fill the gaps between closer stars. Olbers's paradox says that because the night sky is dark, at least one of these three assumptions must be false., alt=In this animation depicting an infinite and homogeneous sky, successively more distant stars are revealed in each frame. As the animation progresses, the more distant stars fill the gaps between closer stars in the field of view. Eventually, the entire image is as bright as a single star. Olbers's paradox, also known as the dark night paradox or Olbers and Cheseaux's paradox, is an argument in astrophysics and physical cosmology that says the darkness of the night sky conflicts with the assumption of an infinite and eternal static universe. In the hypothetical case that the universe is static, homogeneous at a large scale, and populated by an infinite number of stars, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eternal Inflation
Eternal inflation is a hypothetical inflationary universe model, which is itself an outgrowth or extension of the Big Bang theory. According to eternal inflation, the inflationary phase of the universe's expansion lasts forever throughout most of the universe. Because the regions expand exponentially rapidly, most of the volume of the universe at any given time is inflating. Eternal inflation, therefore, produces a hypothetically infinite multiverse, in which only an insignificant fractal volume ends inflation. Paul Steinhardt, one of the original researchers of the inflationary model, introduced the first example of eternal inflation in 1983, and Alexander Vilenkin showed that it is generic. Alan Guth's 2007 paper, "Eternal inflation and its implications", states that under reasonable assumptions "Although inflation is generically eternal into the future, it is not eternal into the past". Guth detailed what was known about the subject at the time, and demonstrated that etern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
