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What is entropy? - Jeff Phillips

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There’s a concept that’s crucial to chemistry and physics. It helps explain why physical processes go one way and not the other: why ice melts, why cream spreads in coffee, why air leaks out of a punctured tire. It’s entropy, and it’s notoriously difficult to wrap our heads around. Jeff Phillips gives a crash course on entropy.

Besides the examples provided (hot object in contact with a cold one, air leaking out of a tire, cream mixing into coffee), what are other examples that illustrate the nature of entropy as time’s arrow? Hint: Think about what a process would look like or behave if time were reversed… “run the movie backwards.” These reversed processes should look “odd” or unphysical.

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Jeff Phillips
  • Director Iuri Araujo, Guilherme Araujo
  • Script Editor Eleanor Nelsen
  • Animator Iuri Araujo, Guilherme Araujo
  • Compositor Andre Luiz Machado
  • Composer Andre Luiz Machado
  • Associate Producer Jessica Ruby
  • Content Producer Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
  • Narrator Addison Anderson

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