Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE

Can a demon defeat the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics?

You can further support us on Patreon at   / pbsspacetime  

Get your own Space Time t­-shirt at http://bit.ly/1QlzoBi

Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime
Facebook: facebook.com/pbsspacetime
Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com
Comment on Reddit:   / pbsspacetime  

Help translate our videos!
   / timedtext_cs_.  .

Previous Episode:
The Misunderstood Nature of Entropy
   • The Misunderstood Nature of Entropy  

Entropy is sometimes described as a measure of disorder or randomness. The second law of thermodynamics – the law that entropy must, on average, increase – has been interpreted as the inevitability of the decay of structure. This is … misleading. As we saw in our episode on the physics of life, structure can develop in one region even as the entropy of the universe rises. Ultimately, entropy is a measure of the availability of free energy – of energy that isn’t hopelessly mixed in thermal equilibrium. Pump energy into a small system and complexity can thrive..

Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written Matt O'Dowd
Graphics by Grayson Blackmon
Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow
Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

Special thanks to our Patreon Big Bang, Quasar and Hypernova Supporters:

Big Bang
CoolAsCats
David Nicklas
Anton Lifshits
Joey Redner
Fabrice Eap

Quasar
Tambe Barsbay
Mayank M. Mehrota
Mars Yentur
Mark Rosenthal
Dean Fuqua
Roman Pinchuk
ColeslawPurdie
Vinnie Falco

Hypernova
Donal Botkin
Edmund Fokschaner
Matthew O’Connor
Eugene Lawson
Barry Hatfield
Martha Hunt
Joseph Salomone
Chuck Zegar
Craig Peterson
Jordan Young
Ratfeast
John Hofmann


Thanks to our Patreon Gamma Ray Burst Supporters:
James Hughes
Fabian Olesen
Kris Fernet
Jane Meyers
James Flowers
Greg Allen
Denys Ivanov
Nick Virtue
Alexey Eromenko
Nicholas Rose
Scott Gossett
Mark Vasile
Patrick Murray
سلطان الخليفي
Alex Seto
Michal-Peanut Karmi
Erik Stein
Kevin Warne
JJ Bagnell
Avi Goldfinger
John Pettit
Florian Stinglmayr
Benoit Pagé-Guitard
Nathan Leniz
Brandon Labonte
David Crane
Greg Weiss
Shannan Catalano
Brandon Cook