Sunday, January 17, 2010

Entropy


My little sister is a Chemistry teacher. She once showed me a video that she made to explain the principle of entropy to her high school students. As I remember it, entropy refers to a universal law (thermodynamics, I believe) that all matter will naturally settle into the state that requires the least amount of energy to maintain. One of the definitions of entropy on dictionary.com (just looked it up) is the "inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society."

Surprisingly, since viewing Laura's video many months ago, I've thought about entropy a lot. This principle of Chemistry seems to describe my life perfectly:

Exhibit A: Ryan and I deep cleaned our apartment yesterday; within several hours, the place looked like a disaster area again. Why is it so hard to keep our living space in order?

Exhibit B: On January 1, I made several lofty goals for 2010; on January 17, I'm already back to my disordered, disorganized, distraught self. Why is it so hard to be disciplined?

I am blaming entropy. It's not my fault....there's no use fighting it. It's a universal law.

What examples of entropy do you see in your daily life?

10 comments:

  1. I have three great examples: Nathan, Jack, Dallen. :)

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  2. Whenever we move somewhere, whatever doesn't get unpacked in the first whirl doesn't get unpacked at all. I mean, I had this box of junk in my bedroom that I'd just add to instead of unpacking-- for the whole time we were in Boise. I see the same thing happening in Washington.
    I did solve one problem, though: don't have a coffee table. I put all my junk on the top, and when that's the focus of the room, it looks like a disaster area. Now I have a desk (with drawers to hide my junk!!), and it's off to the side. Our family room looks deceptively cleaner

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  3. I've always thought that my kids alone must be responsible for the second law of thermodynamics (entropy always increasing in the universe).

    Thermodynamics tells us that it's perfectly fine for isolated areas of the universe to become more ordered, as long as the overall disorder in the universe increases. So, maybe if you put in a phone call to Dallen, he can be extra messy tomorrow to offset your order-keeping attempts, and maybe they'll stick!

    Josh

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  4. laundry, my desk, my attempts to use a planner, the reason why I prefer not to make my bed or put my shoes away. also, the reason I leave the lid off of the oreo jar at my grandma's house... my hand is just gonna be back in it in a few hours anyways.

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  5. Callum's nursery. The lack of willpower in relation to eating sweets in my home. My to-do list that gets magically longer every second.

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  6. I like Josh's idea! My favorite example is my shoes. I have them all lined up in rows in my closet at the beginning of the week and then magically they appear ALL OVER THE HOUSE within a day or two!! Sam is always commenting on how I have a million pairs of shoes EVERYWHERE!

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  7. P.S. I really am devestated that the movie was lost on my old computer. It is almost worth it to me to pay someone to salvage my hard drive JUST for that movie. Sigh.

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  8. My attempt at not eating candy. I can never stay disciplined in that area. I keep a bag of candy with me at ALL times. :)

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  9. My hair. I blame the universe too, because no matter how I curl, straighten, tease, or spray, it always ends up back in that messy pony tail.

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  10. I a planner for Christmas to help me be more organized and ON TOP of things...it worked for the first two weeks, but not anymore. I just don't think I can live a highly organized life. *sigh* asi es.

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