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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
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>>	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