In a recent paper, SFI Professor David Wolpert, SFI Fractal Faculty member Carlo Rovelli, and physicist Jordan Scharnhorst examine a longstanding, paradoxical thought experiment in statistical physics ...

Was an incredible drop in entropy responsible for the Big Bang? If that’s the case, this w Was an incredible drop in entropy responsible for the Big Bang? If that’s the case, this would lead us to ...

Boltzmann described a system moving closer to thermodynamic equilibrium as becoming more “disordered” because no matter how the particles in the system were arranged initially—perhaps the faster ...

Science popularization has its legends and heroes, just like any other field, though I’ve heard no plans as yet to open a Hall of Fame. Should that day come, one of the first inductees would ...

Statistical mechanics is one of the pillars of modern physics. Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906) and Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839-1903) were its primary formulators. They both worked to establish a bridge ...

Entropy is one of the most useful concepts in science but also one of the most confusing. This article serves as a brief introduction to the various types of entropy that can be used to quantify the ...