Is it possible to reverse entropy?

Question

Just as a clarification - I don't mean is it possible to have negative or diminishing entropy - I mean is it possible to reverse the flow of entropy within an event.

Answer 1

I don't think it can. Consider the example many have been using - the freezing of water to form ice.

While it's true that freezing the water will force the water molecules to take a more ordered, crystalline structure, consider the other processes behind freezing - mainly, that of heat dispersion.

By freezing water to make ice, you're taking the energy away from the water molecules, forcing them to settle down into a solid structure. This energy is lost in the form of heat - you're taking heat away from the water to make ice. When you freeze ice cubes in your freezer, the freon circulating through the copper coiling in the back of your 'fridge traps the heat in the liquid, carries it to the top of the coiling and then disperses it into the room. By dispersing this energy, you're creating more disorder in the universe by causing the air molecules to zip around more chaotically and energetically, impacting other molecules in the walls, floor, ceiling, and various objects around your house, causing those particles to jostle more, ad infinitum (or so it would seem). So, while you may be decreasing disorder in some ice cubes, you're increasing disorder in a much, much larger system - the world around you.

Even by sitting there, reading this, you're increasing the disorder around you. ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, is the main source of energy for your organisms - including you. When your cells use ATP for energy, they take that singular substance, break it down and use it for chemical reactions, creating a number of chemical byproducts. You're currently breathing in and out, exhaling heat, water molecules, gases and bacteria. You're even *radiating* heat into the space around you.

You might think I'm being overly-critical, but this final example is one mentioned by Stephen Hawking in his "A Brief History of Time" - so, remember, even the things that might be considered beyond minutiae have a wide-ranging effect upon the physical world.

So, I would say that it's impossible to reverse entropy - at least, by today's current scientific holdings. You never know, things could change tomorrow. But, I'm going to wager that it cannot.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Entropy is a pretty dodgy subject. It's not a very rigorously formed concept, but still important as a phenomenon.

It loops more readily than it reverses.


Your definition of order is critical. Self-reproducing chemical molecules, like DNA, could be perceived to support a 'reverse' in entropy, moving from disorder to order.

You could say the same thing about crystalisation, congealing parts of liquids, sedementation, and lots of other things.

To the best of my knowledge, there's a bit of a grey area where people can't make their mind up whether paricles perfectly distributed represent high order or total disorder.

However, I'm an amateur it this field, and I've not read about it in a long time, so I might be a little off the mark.

Answer 3

It is certainly possible to reverse (by which i mean decrease) entropy of a system. It happens all the time when ever order of a system increases or is made to increase. However, what seems highly improbable is that the net entropy of a closed (Adiabatic) system should decrease. But it must be remembered that the second law of thermodynamics which says the net entropy of a closed system should increase is a probabilistic law. It is unlikely to happen. But not at all impossible in theory. For example, it is unlikely that all the molecules moving randomly in a box should find themselves in one half of the box. Unlikely, but not impossible in theory.
Since the entire Universe is thought of as a closed system, it is said the net entropy of the universe is increasing.

Answer 4

You are contradicting yourself in your question.

You are asking can entropy be reversed if it cannot be reversed.

Entropy, if you mean disorder, can certainly be decreased or increased by introducing heat or allowing heat to be lost. Just boil water or freeze ice. Boiling increases disorder, freezing increases ordert.

But in isolation, entropy (disorder) always increases.

The total amount of entropy in the universe is gradually increasing. The poster who said it was not changing is wrong.

Another wrong post was the crazy idea that time would reverse if the universe started to contract. Don't know where people get these ideas!

Answer 5

The word entropy is often misused to indicate the second law of thermodynamics, the idea that disorder tends to increase.

In this sense we as living beings are in ourselves a reversal of entropy while we live. From conception, the living being becomes MORE ordered and structured,not less. Only after death does entropy really set in again. This is embodied in the funeral phrase: ashes to ashes and dust to dust.

Whenever you construct or create something, you create more order, and you reverse entropy. But it is only temporary.

If the Universe reached the limit of its expansion and began to shrink back to a singularity, it is possible that entropy would be reversed. But we might not be able to perceive this, as we might perceive time as being reversed too, so the universe might look just the same to us, as if it were expanding and entropy was increasing.

Answer 6

The second law of thermodynamics says that you can not decrease the total entropy in the universe, so entropy can decrease in some things, provided it increases in others. For example, when you freeze water, the entropy decreases because heat flows out of the water, into the freezer. So the entropy of your freezer increases, while the entropy of the water decreases.

Answer 7

NO. It is impossible.

Thats the whole point of entropy as a scientific theory, the way the equations are set up, it is impossible to end up lower. If you fix something, you had to eat something to get the energy to fix it.

IMPOSSIBLE

if you consider non-controlled enviorenments though...yea i guess so. But in a controlled enviorment, as all expirements and theories should be, then no.

Answer 8

For a little while. Just go fix your car - but then, as soon as you're done, good old entropy is back on the job.

Answer 9

Unless you travel at 'c' and experiece time dilation then yes, but due to the mass/energy relationship exceeding 'c' would be impossible never mind as a possibility.

Answer 10

I suppose so. If you consider an increasing entropy as, for example, ice melting, would that same ice, once melted, then frozen, not have decreased entropy?