One of the most important, yet least understood, concepts in all of physics. Head to brilliant.org/veritasium to start your free 30-day trial, and the first 200 people get 20% off an annual premium subscription.
If you're looking for a molecular modeling kit, try Snatoms - a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically: snatoms.com
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A huge thank you to those who helped us understand different aspects of this complicated topic - Dr. Ashmeet Singh, Supriya Krishnamurthy, Dr. Jos Thijssen, Dr. Bijoy Bera, Dr. Timon Idema, Álvaro Bermejillo Seco and Dr. Misha Titov.
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References:
Carnot, S. (1824). Reflections on the motive power of heat: and on machines fitted to develop that power. - ve42.co/Carnot1890
Harnessing The True Power Of Atoms | Order And Disorder Documentaries, Spark via KZread - ve42.co/OrderDisorder
A better description of entropy, Steve Mould via KZread - ve42.co/Mould2016
Dugdale, J. S. (1996). Entropy and its physical meaning. CRC Press. - ve42.co/Dugdale1996
Schroeder, D. V. (1999). An introduction to thermal physics. - ve42.co/Schroeder2021
Fowler, M. Heat Engines: the Carnot Cycle, University of Virginia. - ve42.co/Fowler2023
Chandler, D.L. (2010). Explained: The Carnot Limit, MIT News - ve42.co/Chandler2010
Entropy, Wikipedia - ve42.co/EntropyWiki
Clausius, R. (1867). The mechanical theory of heat. Van Voorst. - ve42.co/Clausius1867
What is entropy? TED-Ed via KZread - ve42.co/Phillips2017
Thijssen, J. (2018) Lecture Notes Statistical Physics, TU Delft.
Schneider, E. D., & Kay, J. J. (1994). Life as a manifestation of the second law of thermodynamics. Mathematical and computer modelling, 19(6-8), 25-48. - ve42.co/Schneider1994
Lineweaver, C. H., & Egan, C. A. (2008). Life, gravity and the second law of thermodynamics. Physics of Life Reviews, 5(4), 225-242. - ve42.co/Lineweaver2008
Michaelian, K. (2012). HESS Opinions" Biological catalysis of the hydrological cycle: life's thermodynamic function". Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 16(8), 2629-2645. - ve42.co/Michaelian2012
England, J. L. (2013). Statistical physics of self-replication. The Journal of chemical physics, 139(12), 09B623_1. - ve42.co/England2013
England, J. L. (2015). Dissipative adaptation in driven self-assembly. Nature nanotechnology, 10(11), 919-923. - ve42.co/England2015
Wolchover, N. (2014). A New Physics Theory of Life, Quantamagazine - ve42.co/Wolchover2014
Lineweaver, C. H. (2013). The entropy of the universe and the maximum entropy production principle. In Beyond the Second Law: Entropy Production and Non-equilibrium Systems (pp. 415-427). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - ve42.co/LineweaverEntropy
Bekenstein, J.D. (1972). Black holes and the second law. Lett. Nuovo Cimento 4, 737-740. - ve42.co/Bekenstein1972
Carroll, S.M. (2022). The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion. Penguin Publishing Group. - ve42.co/Carroll2022
Black hole thermodynamics, Wikipedia - ve42.co/BlackHoleTD
Cosmology and the arrow of time: Sean Carroll at TEDxCaltech, TEDx Talks via KZread - ve42.co/CarrollTEDx
Carroll, S. M. (2008). The cosmic origins of time’s arrow. Scientific American, 298(6), 48-57. - ve42.co/Carroll2008
The Passage of Time and the Meaning of Life | Sean Carroll (Talk + Q&A), Long Now Foundation via KZread - ve42.co/CarrollLNF
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Written by Casper Mebius, Derek Muller & Petr Lebedev
Edited by Trenton Oliver & Jamie MacLeod
Animated by Mike Radjabov, Ivy Tello, Fabio Albertelli and Jakub Misiek
Filmed by Derek Muller, Albert Leung & Raquel Nuno
Molecular collisions video by CSIRO's Data61 via KZread: Simulation of air
Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images, Pond5 and by courtesy of NASA, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Goddard Flight Lab/ CI Lab, NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, HMI, and WMAP science teams. As well as the Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, B. Robertson, L. Hernquist
Music from Epidemic Sound & Jonny Hyman
Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, Emily Zhang, & Casper Mebius