Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihnet.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!ihnet!tjr From: tjr@ihnet.UUCP (Tom Roberts) Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: Re: Mysteries of the Universe #1 Message-ID: <183@ihnet.UUCP> Date: Mon, 7-Jan-85 14:26:17 EST Article-I.D.: ihnet.183 Posted: Mon Jan 7 14:26:17 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 8-Jan-85 05:44:25 EST References: <361@hercules.UUCP> <184@ihu1m.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 21 >> If entropy is always increasing, where does it come from? >> Frank Adrian >> tektronix!teklds!franka Entropy is an abstract property of a system, not an attribute of an object; it is basically a measure of the symmetry of the state-space of the system. The above question is similar to: Where does the number "three" come from? [This does not apply to all such measurements - e.g. "energy" is a property of an object, and has a totally different origin.] I think that "entropy" (and "three") are concepts which were created by the observation of the universe by intelligence; they have no "objective" existence in the "real" world. Tom Roberts AT&T Bell Laboratories ihnp4!ihnet!tjr