Abstract
POPPER1 denies the cosmic significance of the principle of increase of entropy, stating that “the entropy in almost all known regions (of sufficient size) of our universe either remains constant or decreases, although energy is dissipated (by escaping from the system in question)”. This statement seems in error when we assume the “cosmological principle” that the distribution of energy and matter in the universe on a large scale is uniform in space. Consider a volume of space so great that it contains several thousand galaxies. Through the limits of this system there is—on the large scale—no flow of energy or entropy. In the interior of the system the total entropy at least does not decrease; it increases (among other things) to the extent that the radiation emitted by the stars is transformed (by interaction with matter, for example) into black-body radiation uniformly distributed throughout the volume.
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References
Popper, K., Nature, 207, 233 (1965).
Tolman, R. C., Relativity, Thermodynamics and Cosmology, Part III (Oxford, 1934).
Brillouin, L., Science and Information-Theory (Academic Press, New York, 1956); for some philosophical aspects see: Büchel, W., Philosophische Probleme der Physik, chap. 2 (Herder, Freiburg i.B., 1965).
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BÜCHEL, W. Entropy and Information in the Universe. Nature 213, 319–320 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/213319a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/213319a0
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