Why "Disorder increases with time because we measure time in the direction in which disorder increases"?

Question

- Stephen Hawking

Answer 1

as the universe expands it becomes calmer as time goes by...

apparently according to Stephen Hawkins the universe when young was in pure chaos with everything from light , dust , atoms , and more all flying around fast and chaotically with total randomness , but now where we are at least , the universe is more calmer because of time ageing it and outside the expansion of the universe is all this chaos that he mentioned when it was young

Answer 2

In my opinion, the quote refers to something similar to
the duct tape approach of structural reinforcement.
A structure which is in disorder can't become orderly
based on disorderly improvements. What happens to
the disorder over time? The disorderly rigid structure
which has been superficially taped together eventually
experiences degradation of the adhesiveness of the
tape even as new tape is placed further along the structure.
The result is that the rigid structure snaps along an
axis of rotation where past tape tears creating a disparate
leg which is further off course than if the structure had been
rebuilt orderly at an earlier period in time. Time continues
on and additional tape is added with the same results
progressively occurring at intervals of tensive degradation.

Answer 3

I always sort of disagreed with this as disorder is a perception, not a scientific fact.

I believe Hawking used a glass breaking as an example of disorder, but is this really disorder? Everything that happens in the universe is allowed to happen by a strict set of rules, so even something that seems disorderly to a human, such as a glass breaking, or dust pilling up, or an animal dead and rotting, is still perfect by universal standards.

Answer 4

It is the second law of thermodynamics. It is the statement of the likely behavior of a system but is not always true. And at random a system can become more ordered.

The law is

The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.

It is only true when the system is macroscopic. As the size of the system increases the likelihood of the law holding true increases

Answer 5

My thoughts: Entropy is something that scientists have kind of got a good grasp on, compared to the rest, for example time is more of a problem to understand. If we base our judgements on entropy it can perhaps help to get a better understanding of basically....everything.

Answer 6

because if we measure time on the way on which the disorder is decreasing we would end up in a non existing point of time (the past).

Answer 7

What's your question? Do you want to know what the statement means, or do you want to know why it's true? Vague much?

Answer 8

I don't understand your question?