Absolute Versus Statistical Reversibility
Thermodynamics defines the statistical behaviour of large numbers of entities, whose exact behavior is given by more specific laws. Since the fundamental theoretical laws of physics are all time-reversible, however experimentally, probability of real reversibility is low, former presuppositions can be fulfilled and/or former state recovered only to higher or lower degree (see: uncertainty principle). The irreversibility of thermodynamics must be statistical in nature; that is, that it must be merely highly unlikely, but not impossible, that a system will lower in entropy.
Read more about this topic: Irreversible Process
Famous quotes containing the word absolute:
“The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. In our system, she must become a passive, much more than an active, influence, and her passivity shall be composed of anxious scientific curiosity and of absolute respect for the phenomenon which she wishes to observe. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon.”
—Maria Montessori (1870–1952)