View Single Post
  #10  
Old June 2nd 17, 11:07 AM posted to sci.physics.research,sci.astro.research
Phillip Helbig
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 38
Default entropy and gravitation

In article ,
Gerry Quinn writes:

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.


Imagine a clumpy universe with no gravity. It has low entropy (lower
than the smooth universe). Now G starts increasing from zero to, say,
its current value (at which point the clumpy universe has a higher
entropy than the smooth universe). At some value of G, the clumpy
universe must have the same entropy as the smooth universe (which you
say has the same entropy with or without gravity). So for this value of
G, the entropy is independent of the clumpiness.

Someone has made an error somewhere.


Why should it not be independent of the clumpiness?


Because it's not. A room full of air with the same density everywhere
has higher entropy than a room with all of the air squeezed into one
corner. (In the case where gravity can be neglected. When gravity
plays a role, then the clumpier distribution has higher entropy.)