Brownian motion: Difference between revisions

Brownian motion (view source)

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 {{drop|Y|ou will hear}} it said that the surface of the proverbial “nice hot cup of tea” tends to stillness only through the awesome force of [[entropy]]. The particles ricocheting this way and that in the liquid, colliding chaotically, and you only do not notice them because of the vast ''improbability'' that enough particles all happen move the same way at once.
-The state of a system is “ordered” when only a few arrangements could produce that state. It is in a state of chaos when many arrangements could produce the same state. The larger systems get the more ways there are for them be chaotic so, if left alone, systems tend to disorder. That is, ''entropy''.
+A system appears “ordered” when only a few arrangements, out of many, could produce a recognisable state. It is in a state of chaos when many arrangements could produce the same state. Twenty blocks stacked on top of each other: ordered. Twenty blocks scattered on the floor: chaotic. There are countless ways of scattering blocks across the floor; only a few ways of stacking them. The larger systems get the more ways there are for them be chaotic so, if left alone, systems tend to disorder. That is, ''entropy''.
 In this sense, entropy is just a statement of basic probability: the larger the number of particles there are, the more scope there is for chaos.