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**Gerry Quinn[_3_]** · June 1st 17, 09:24 PM posted to sci.physics.research,sci.astro.research

In article ,
says...

A smooth distribution corresponds to high entropy and a lumpy one to low
entropy if gravity is not involved. For example, air in a room has high
entropy, but all the oxygen in one part and all the nitrogen in another
part would correspond to low entropy.

If gravity is involved, however, things are reversed: a lumpy
distribution (e.g. everything in black holes) has a high entropy and a
smooth distribution (e.g. the early universe) has a low entropy.

Let's imagine the early universe---a smooth, low-entropy
distribution---and imagine gravity becoming weaker and weaker (by
changing the gravitational constant). Can we make G arbitrarily small
and the smooth distribution will still have low entropy? This seems
strange: an ARBITRARILY SMALL G makes a smooth distribution have a low
entropy. On the other hand, it seems strange that the entropy should
change at some value of G.

The smooth distribution always has the same entropy. Start with the
smooth distribution and no gravity, and increase the gravitational
constant. Now high entropy states start to become available that were
not available withouy gravity.

To put it another way, the 'clumpy' states in the non-gravitational
universe have lower entropy than the smooth state, but the clumpy states
in the gravitational universe have higher entropy than the smooth state.

The clumpiness versus dispersion 'paradox' isn't such a paradox either.
When gravitational clumping takes place, energy is released which will
eventually become widely dispersed as low-grade thermal energy. This
ultimately applies even if black holes are formed, although the thermal
energy will for a long time be locked up in black holes.

- Gerry Quinn

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