# Australians violate entropy

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-violate-entropy/120233>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 22, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-violate-entropy/120233 "2002-07-22T16:42:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RadioWave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RadioWave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadioWave)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-violate-entropy/120233/1 "2002-07-22T16:42:32Z")

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Or to put it less anthropologically, some [blokes in Australia](http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2135000/2135779.stm) have conducted an experiment that proves the second law of thermodynamics does not always hold for small systems. The gist of the article is that, for very small amounts of time, some microscopic beads suspended in water exhibited a decrease in entropy when excited by a laser.

My main questions are[list=1]  
[li]Is this the first time the fluctuation theory has been experimentally proven?[/li][li]Does anyone know what behavior the system exhibited (e.g. beads aligning)?[/li][li]Doesn’t this prove that the Big Bang could have come from a singularity even though that violates entropy?[/li][/list=1]

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**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-violate-entropy/120233/2 "2002-07-22T17:24:43Z")

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Entropy is a statistical “thing” and not actually a law, although referred to as the 2d Law of thermodynamics. It is theoretical possible that, by random motion, anything can become more organized and more orderly. It is theoretical possible that any and all things can appear to violate entropy, but statistically very unlikely. It has been known that at microscopic levels, the unlikeliness of this becomes less so.

I don’t see how a singularlity exploding into the Big Bang would violate entropy, as that is a classic case of a very organized object (a singularlity) becoming more disorganized. But even if it does, it is possible since the violation of entropy is always possible.

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**Author:** ![JS\_Princeton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-violate-entropy/120233/3 "2002-07-22T17:50:13Z")

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This topic has been addressed [in this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=126568).

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-violate-entropy/120233/4 "2002-07-22T18:31:01Z")

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Australians violate _many_ things.

Principally sheep.

It should come as no suprise to anyone who knows them. 😉

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**Author:** ![RadioWave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RadioWave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadioWave)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-violate-entropy/120233/5 "2002-07-22T18:41:51Z")

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Thanks for the replies. I _did_ do a search before opening this but apparently did not use the right magic words. No need to waste any more bandwidth here. Move along. 🙂