Brian Cox explains why time travels in one direction - BBC
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 9. 03. 2011
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Professor Brian Cox builds sandcastles in the Namib Desert to explain why time travels in one direction. It is a result of a phenomenon called entropy; a law of physics that tells us any system tends towards disorder.
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I remember watching this as a child when it was first aired and the ideas made a lasting impact. Now Iâm about to take on a PhD related to entropy and complex systems. Epic and memorable scene!
Very relatable! It made almost too much sense back then,. of such a fundamental thing as time that, to speak with Neil de Grass Tyson it "made me want to grab people on the street and say: âHave you HEARD THIS?
How old is this show? It looked pretty new to me... I must be stuck in a time warp...
@@Freikinator It came out 10 years ago, so if this person's just starting a PhD, they're probably 22ish, so they could have seen the show when they were 12, which I'd consider a kid.
Congrats!
@@licl4708
As far as our current understanding of things are: entropy can only increase from a lower state to a higher state of entropy, but not vice versa. You live, alive is a state of low entropy, and one day you die, death is a state of high entropy. This suggests that it can't be reversed and therefore you can only move in one direction in time. It's why you experience aging as a linear thing. But that is what we know of it so far, it's what currently seems most likely and what yields the right results in our models. However, we might be completely wrong. Just as our models can be great tools to predict a lot of things, they are not reality. What you try to describe is never exactly the described: e.g. if I pick up the map of England and tell you I have been everywhere in England just by literally standing on the map, you would rightfully call me foolish; the map is only a model. Take Newtonian mechanics, great for most of our current day applications, we even put people on the moon with it, yet it is rubbish once we try to study the quanta (the tiniest particles we know of, such as atoms and their parts). The more we think to know, the less we seem to know.
_âWe live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.â_ - John Archibald Wheeler
If you like to think of a new perspective on time, check out dr. Julian Barbour, you can find documentaries where he speaks of time on CZcams.
"I'm going to create some order in the universe" *colonises the desert*
He already brought a flag. Doing a proper job.
@@janpeternelj2309 Which is upside down...
@@Climpus no, it's showing the reverse side.
@@davebox588 No, it's upside down. It doesn't matter which way it's being blown by the wind, the top corner on the flag pole should display the thicker white diagonal stripe above the thinner red.
O
You can tell Brian Cox is very passionate about what he says and tries to explain it as easy as possible for the audience. much respect for this guy
I want to see him playing keyboard in his failed band "Dare"
@@TonyEnglandUKhow did they fail?>
@@jonbateman3245 His band released two albums _"Out of the Dream"_ and _"Blood from Stone"_ - they both flopped. He then went on to join D:Ream _("Things Can Only Get Better")_
@@jonbateman3245 Apparently, Brian is a good keyboard player, though.
@@TonyEnglandUK heâs not done too bad then, I wouldnât call him a failure, but we all have different views which is cool.
Prof Brian Cox is the David Attenborough of Space and Time. Both national treasures
Excuse me sir but Carl Sagan is and will always be the daddy of space and time. If you haven't watched his series 'Cosmos' then do yourself a favour (this was remade by one of his students Neil deGrasse Tyson many decades later)
Can't stand him. I heard he added "Ucker" to his surname.
@@analogpixel We know dude lol. And literally everyone knows about the famed Cosmos series. They were just comparing Brian Cox to another individual. He wasn't designating the GOATs of cosmology or something.
â@@Ryan88881 Haha I know, it's just that, nobody who's seen Cosmos would ever utter the phrase "Brian Cox is the David Attenborough of Space and Time".
@@analogpixelCarl Sagan is a yank. David and Brian are fine english gentlemen, donât compare them to a yank please.
I love the way he talks, so gentle and happy
So nice to see a gamer who also loves physics! Keep making excellent gta vids
@@ctboy1989 those two interests are way more common than you think man
Talks like Roger Waters.
This is what you get when you become a true expert in your subject, it's called competence and gives rise to confidence. I wonder how many youngsters have been inspired by Professor Brian Cox to study Science.
@Yao Jie Wong 0
Legend has it that Brian Cox has never shouted in his entire life......He could be telling me my entire family have been wiped out and that voice would sooth away my grief!
Pretty sure he was in a rock band in his youth!
@@avocajoe1916 D-Ream were not a rock band, pop...and he played keyboard!
@@Gavinlovesfishing haha thats even better tbh!
Truth is his students think he's a shit lecturer at uni
Try telling him aliens don't exist
I can listen to Dr Cox all day with the enthusiasm of a child in his voice. He makes it easier to understand imo. Thank you
Imagine you are shown video footage of the wind turning the sand castle into a pile of sand. Now imagine it is played backward. The reverse footage shows a pile of sand spontaneously turning into a castle. You would know immediately that the first video is real and the second one is played backward, not the other way around. It is normal for complex things to disintegrate, but not for complex things to appear out of thin air. That's how you can tell which way time goes. It is also this exact law that contradicts time travel back to the past. (Funnily enough, it is consistent with time travel into the future.)
I know this is late but this man is absolutely a gem. I've been watching his documentaries all throughout the years and he explains science in such beautiful and poetic ways it just sends a shiver down your spine. People like these are the ones who ignite the spark of curiosity in a child's mind who in turn grows up to do even greater things in life.
Hats off to such guys.
You heard the infinite monkey cage?
@@n0body550 it's great.
totally agree with you
Yes time only runs in one direction, from past to future. You cant go into the past unless you have a camera and you can record moments of past and see them in future. That's the closest we have come to time travel. Otherwise tangibly its impossible to go from past to future or future to past because you will disrupt the very laws of universe. Thus time travel is impossible and time runs in only one direction. Time travel is only a myth and fictional.
I honestly don't think it's impossible. I'm more of an optimist in this. I believe everything is possible. Anything you can think of: monsters, time travel, lightsabers and what not is creatable.. the only thing standing in the way of those things being created are the laws of physics, which can certainly be defied or surpassed but only with enough knowledge of course.. I basically believe that our thoughts are all realisable, some are just held back by the laws of physics since we don't know enough to surpass them
For anybody confused about the question in the title: Entropy goes from low to high with the passage of time because of the 2nd law of thermodynamics. This works well if time travels in 1 direction. If time traveled in the opposite direction, you should expect the opposite trend which is high to low entropy. This isn't the case (as far we know), therefore time travels in 1 direction.
Thank youđđ»
So it's not really explaining why it travels in one direction, it's proving that it does? But I feel like perception is intertwined with time so maybe we just perceive it in one direction? Still totally confused haha. Thanks anyway.
Yea but how would we know for sure ?đafter all the universe had very low entropy in the first place now itâs having high so when the death of the universe happens from heat death entropy ( could ) decreases đand in time you could get a new universe đI also think the universe may have some determinism after all how can our lives really be that random ?đif the universe were to end forever you might as well kick out earth and the universe all to togetherđ if our universe is an isolated system witch means nothing goes in and nothing goes out that means out universe is infinite and if itâs finite and it expirences a heat death entropy will decrease đleading to a reverse Big Bang or creating another one đand if earth formed from evolution why canât it not form again?đ
@@jettmthebluedragon All process strive for minium free nergy. In the development of thermodynamics, entropy was developed as a parameter needed to increase, when free energy goes down, in any spontaenous process.
@@dropdtune9199 hmm interesting đ€but why should humans like you and me only formed from the so called Big Bang only 14 billion years ago? When the earth is 4.6 billion years?đit does not make since đthe universe could all ready be infinite and we are just living in mot just planet but a patch of it đalso you say entropy ALWAYS increases so why do scientists say the universe had very low entropy ? đyou say it always increases so explain why and how entropy was low đ?
This is by far the best explanation of entropy.
I've long heard the entropy explanation for why time only appears to move in one direction, but I often wonder if we haven't been looking at time altogether incorrectly.
We always seem to treat it as some mathematical abstraction, or some linear line of events, tacked on at the last minute to our understanding of the physical universe. But I've pondered the notion that perhaps time is actually _cumulative_ -- that it doesn't move or travel so much as it merely continues to add to itself, like an ever-expanding sphere.
I don't have the physics knowledge to be able to actualize this idea, but I know that time is already recognized as integral to the composition of space (space-time). I simply suspect it has more of a 'physical' presence than is currently believed. If so, it _could_ help explain the ever-increasing rate of expansion of the universe, what we now attribute to "dark energy" (which NOBODY understands).
First law of CZcams dynamics: every video will be in your recommended list after ten years.
hahahhahahah
Yes time only runs in one direction, from past to future. You cant go into the past unless you have a camera and you can record moments of past and see them in future. That's the closest we have come to time travel. Otherwise tangibly its impossible to go from past to future or future to past because you will disrupt the very laws of universe. Thus time travel is impossible and time runs in only one direction. Time travel is only a myth and fictional.
I like he said " in the 19th century ".
Like, i know i was born when the first ever nintendo came out, but its not that long ago lol.
@@asahmosskmf4639 but you were not born in the 19th century ;)
This guy Brian Cox is an absolute legend, everything he's done with his life is amazing, massive respect to him and all the efforts he's put in to being able to do what he loves
He also has a painting in his attic that ages so he doesn't have to. True story.
He's grade A , moron !
@@MrHoldemace
1. He evidently isn't. He literally has credentials that stand up to accreditation and published works to prove so.
2. He's far more accomplished in his life than you'll ever be in yours so why you'd make such an idiotic statement I do not know.
@@Nine-Signs Accomplished because he was a singer firstly . Memories of education means jack , real physics disagrees with dogma .
@@MrHoldemace 2:05 I'm surprised he didn't build a pyramid đ
Entropy has always been my favorite concept of physics. Such a fascinating phenomenon.
Yes, but entopy has nothing to do with ''time''. Non sentient entropy is not ''time''.
@@user-ky5dy5hl4dI think the past has a lower entropic state which is why itâs always going forward, although it may have nothing to do with entropy as time is a dimension
@@Why_did_CZcams_add_handles How do you know that from the lower entropic state the past is always going forward and not backwards?
@@user-ky5dy5hl4dTime is a human concept - at least the way we perceive it. Our brain is hardwired to detect the vector from a lower state of entropy towards a higher state, and represent it in our minds as a "feeling of motion from the past towards the future". Just like we perceive electromagnetic radiation within certain wavelengths as "colors". It is all immensely practical for survival, but not necessarily physically correct.
@@thomaskolb8785 Entropy does not go from a higher state to a lower state. It goes from low entropy state to higher entropy state. If it ran like you described then time would run backwards. But anyway, entropy has nothing to do with ''time''
Brain Cox , I am your fan. I saw your series on BBC a decade ago, since then mesmerized.
I might just be stupid, but I don't understand how that explained the whole 'time moves in one direction' thing at all
The way i understood it is, time moves in one direction to the future because the future will have high entropy because if time would move all over the place or even a circular way, if you could go back in time freely paradoxes would appear such as going back in time and preventing your parents from meeting, etc. That would have low entropy because it would be very complex. Time being Linear would have high entropy, any other way will have low entropy. That's how i got it anyway. Sorry for my broken english.
The past is set so therefore has a low entropy, it is the sand castle. From that castle (time period), forces work against it like the wind in this video and allow for many possible futures, high entropy.
The Arrow of Time is entropy. As time passes changes occur and once they occur they can never be undone.
CorsetGrace Agree with all but the last sentence. They can be undone and they do get undone like the sand castle. They get undone in what is essentially the present. However there are many ways that the future can be like, so it's high entropy, so that's why we're moving toward it, as you said.
That's what I got out of it but I could be wrong. Just learned about it five minutes ago.
You are not stupid. Instead, the statement that "time moves" is nonsensical. Time is a mental concept. It has no physical reality. It's not even a true dimension: there is no freedom to move on it (in contrast to moving in space). It is always now. Don't take my word for it. Just check your experience.
CorsetGrace thanks for that... after reading it out loud a few times its kinda clicked
This is by far the best explanation for entropy I've ever heard
I started reading a Stephen Hawking book once. A book whers he had, he believed, dumbed down so normal people could understand it. I think i managed about 25 pages.
I dont ger this guy either. Surely when he made the sand castle he contradicted himself. Its not extremely unlikely that castles will be made in the sand or they wouldn't sell bucket and spades in the beach shops.
The sandcastles get washed away by the sea. Not by wind.
Its a good job this guy isnt in Dr. Who or he wouldnt wanna go anywhere "Nah. It'll just be sand by now".
I spose at least the daleks would struggle to move about in it.
â@@themanfromvolantis Yeah, you really don't get it đ
There isn't really a place for pedants like you; especially in 5 minute video summaring entropy using no maths, aswell as avoiding jargon that would confuse the layman's.
He's trying to make physics accessible, and your best rebuttle is to be quibble đ
@@themanfromvolantis You managed to fundamentally misunderstand absolutely everything Brian said to a point where I don't think there is any explanation of physics possible that you would understand. It's really quite impressive how you utterly missed the point so well it could just as well not have even been said.
I was about 22 when I first saw this on TV when it came out and it stuck with me ever since. Saw Brian Cox live 2 years ago on his tour, he's one of those interesting people you could listen to speak about theories of things for hours, literally. I especially love how he makes it 'accessible' and keeps explanations simple for everyone to keep up.
Never saw this before, although I did ALWAYS use another video of his in my classes covering acceleration, atmospheric resistance and terminal velocity. In it, he drops a bunch of feathers and a bowling ball simultaneously, from being suspended perhaps 20 or so meters in the air inside the world's largest vacuum chamber. They, of course, hit the ground at the exact same time. Great to watch!!
This is a novel and utterly (IMHO) perfect way to explain time's flow. Never have I seen anyone better define such an abstract as 'time' by explaining its simple adherance to the laws of Physics, and specifically Thermodynamics. It also proves the only other decent explanation for time I'd ever seen....that " Time is a measurement of change."
VERY well done, and Thank you, Professor Cox.
There is a problem with Brian's claim.
If increasing disorder creates the arrow of time then that means that time must reverse, every time entropy decreases and things get more complex. That include biological systems, evolution, human development and technology and that is clearly not true.
Another issue about entropy is that it was formulated by studying gases which are fairly unstable. Not by studying solids like diamonds that can maintain structure for huge periods of time.
@@Andrew4HandelAre you also a physicist?
Yes@@kfalla1
@@Andrew4Handel Impressive. I so admire the way your mind works.
@@Andrew4Handel Yes, if it is 'highly unlikely' that entropy will decrease, that means that it CAN decrease, and therefore that would mean that (very rarely) time would run backwards. Entropy is a measure (perhaps a symptom) of the arrow time, not its cause.
"You cant reverse time, trust me" - The man who gets younger with age
@Repent to Jesus Christ Repent to Jesus Christ IDIOT.
Yeah actually he does
Anyone else notice heâs sitting in the room from the âSlow Rushâ album cover?
Yessss
Strange that he's also talking about time, something the album does a lot of as well
haha i was wondering if anyone noticed that
OMG YEAH
Holy moly
Saw this on TV as a child, and it's where I got both my interest in science and my interest in dilfs with audiobook voices
Brian Cox - you are the most amazing teacher I've ever heard. Thank you for sharing what you know, and explaining it so very well. I've always loved science even though it was not my primary field of study. What lucky students you have!!!
I like how speaks this English man. By the way, that ghost town half buried by sand is called Kolmanskop, it is in the Namibian desert, and it was a diamond mine. By 1954 it was completely abandoned.
Thank you! I was wondering.
@@tastyanagram there's always someone who knows the obscure.
More fascinating than entropy and time travel is how he managed to not get any sand in his eye
He got plenty of sand in his knickers.
Hairstyle is for a reason
Well, he didn't take a p*ss.
Who says he didnât? ;)
Wonders of the universe, my favourite tv show ever, I never missed an episode of it . Thanks professor brian cox for igniting my interest in space .
I can imagine Christopher Nolan watching it some 10 to 15 years ago, and tell himself that would make a fantastic sci-fi thriller plot. That was both mind blowing and well shot.
"Now, let's gonna create some order in the Universe...". [Brian Cox]
Builds a sand castle...(1 second later)...British flag! Classic.
Lol
đđđ€Łđ€Ł
United Kingdom flag. British flag is different.
@Tonald Drump aaahhh an idiot.....
@@deanmoncaster That flag is called the Union Flag and, by the way, it is upside down.
I hated physics as a kid in high school. It all seemed so theoretical, so foreign. But now 20 years later watching these documentaries by Cox these concepts seem tangible, even beautiful like a painting. Well done! I wish we had more science teachers like that. People who can communicate these things in a hands-on manner. Music and art classes provide the intuition to understand context and connections as well. So the hard sciences and the arts (and sports) do complement each other.
Interesting. I found that for chemistry (since what was happening at a molecular level was rather abstractly related only to any experiments we could perform), but not for physics. We did little experiments regularly, practically modelling and testing whatever it was we were learning about at the time (well, except for a few things like radiation), and it was the hands-on link between theory and prac that I most enjoyed.
Unfortunately the physics you learn in school isnt all fun and games, rather it helps us solve earthly problems and make money. Thatd be amazing if it had even a little philosophy and pop science though, just to inspire kids even if they have to get down to the nitty gritty stuff first.
Yeah my physics class was trash too actually. Although it is entirely possible you as an adult now are well more rounded say Vs.. your highschool self :p
So maybe finding these concepts finally tangible is a result of that.
videos like this are the reason people love to say.... 'it's science', 'I love science', etc... to whatever random video they make
I love using the 2nd law of thermodynamics and entropy to explain some moral issues and enforcing values to my students. For example, it is easier to do bad things; it is hard work to stay good. That is because to decrease entropy of a system (towards order due to doing good things), the surrounding (including my students) must exert work towards the system. This will increase the entropy of the surrounding (muscle breakdown, consumption of food molecules, etc. due to excertion of effort, use of resources and energy). Another way of stating this is, it is easier to make a mess of my room than to keep it clean and organized.
I love the way Brian Cox explains things in a way that just about anyone can understand.
Someone said to me "if you can't explain something simply, you most probably don't understand the subject enough". That's why Brian Cox and Neil de Grasse are definitely one of the best scientists.
All a load of tripe , next they will be saying we are descended from apes.and the only life in the universe đ
speak for yourself I don't understand shit!
@@domantlen6231 Neil and Hawking have a way of explain science that makes it easier to understand. I love reading their books
@@brucedunn6845 both of those things are true as far as all empirical evidence would suggest.
I love how most shots of Brian Cox, could all be great album covers đ
I mean he was a rock star
@@meetaverma8372 in more ways than one đđ€€đ€Ș
This is the most amazing way of understanding laws of thermodynamics and concepts of entropy
Always explaining things at our level. Thanks.
Level 0 you mean
I watched this two years from now and it is already bending my mind.
His appearance discounts his own theory - this guy appears to be getting younger
his appearance has low entropy
This was uploaded 10 years ago...
Except itâs not a theory and itâs not his either.
I think its his big head, we all know time runs slower closer to the centre of a dense black hole.
This was 10 years ago lmao
Brian has such a unique way of explaining these things.
props to the audio person who recorded brian's voice on such a windy day
GREAT explanation of entropy!!
AWFUL explanation as to why time travels in one direction...
Title your videos better BBC
since entropy always increases as time passes, time will not run backwards. If it were to run backwards, entropy will have to decrease which then breaks the law of thermodynamics.
+Kai Wen Lum
_"since entropy always increases as time passes, time will not run backwards. If it were to run backwards, entropy will have to decrease which then breaks the law of thermodynamics."_
Unfortunately, there is a fatal flaw in this statement. Specifically, the _"as time passes"_ part. Or, to put it in synonymous terms: _"as time moves forward"_. That's the crux: the Second Law of Thermodynamics only tells us something about the case in which time *already* runs forward. Time running forward is the *premise* that is required for the Second Law to hold. Therefore, the Law can, by definition, never be used to explain why said premise *must* always hold.
It's like trying to prove the existence of a God _[which I don't believe in, for the record]_ by means of an established truth that starts with _"If (a) God exists, then [...]"_. You can't prove a statement by means of another statement if the second statement relies on the first statement being true.
Yes. This is what they call circular reasoning. I think somewhere in the editing or production process the logical structure of the argument must have been lost. Now we're left with some super flimsy albeit intriguing nonsense.
Ahsim - As in with Maths, there exists Axioms. Without such preconditions, then the whole science cannot hold. Let's take cooking for e.g. baked 220 degrees celcius for 10mins and it's cooked. Granted varying atmospheric pressure it will change but generally speaking it will be cooked as designed.
Let's take your presumption, that we cannot assume the thermodynamics to hold. However one would have to ask with all the observation and experiment that we know of to date, is there an existence that this holds, whereby time is not a factor?
Hence physics theorem is as far as we acknowledge of the observable paradigm.
That's not what Ahsim is saying, dude.
The BBC really do make the best documentary's. the presenter, the music, the quality. this series blew me away. "Beautiful order" indeed.
HipFire_HeadShot agreed, but the flag is upside down, or is that entropy in action :-)
i spotted that immediately! well done
Yep quality work indeed.
That is why we must fight to protect its artistic integrity from the interference of petty fogging politicians who try and do it down at every turn - it is only one small step to Trumpism and one small stride from North Korean crack downs.
I admire the British for their artistic and intellectual integrity. (Aussie here.) Hopefully it always remains.
Brilliant academic. An absolute fan of his explanations.
I totally agree . Beause according to thermodynamics,time only flows in one direction . For example , a glass falling from the table and breaking into pieces represents increased chaos in the system.
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day, fritter away the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town, waiting for someone or something to show you the way
So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Wonderful how he explains things so easily. One of the top scientists today.
Amazing video, very informative, and Brian Cox explains the subject in a very comprehensible way. Thank you.
You can feel...that he is beautiful soul!..l love listening to him and his explanations!
the footage, the b roll, the cinematography, the music, and the explanation, perfectly shivering
Wow, I truly like this guy. My dad says that when a person knows something they are able to explain it so that anyone could understand. They don't need fancy words to make others puzzled, but they can make things simple. And this guy here knows how to do that. It means he actually knows what he is talking about.
Ur dad is stupid and so are u
The quote you are looking for is "If you can't explain something to a six-year-old, you really don't understand it yourself." - Richard Feynmann
@@gpr1016 Thank you xD
â@@gpr1016have you read his work it a little bit beyond a six year old..
I believe he was actually referring to his diagrams
What a great delivery đź awesome compact mind opening explanation
When I understood this basic concept it was amazing ..well done and thank you
I think we are missing the second and most crucial part where Brian explains exactly why the 2nd law of thermodynamics demonstrates why time travels in one direction !
Tim Marchant BS
It demonstrates why time appears to travel in one direction for us, not that from every perspective or under ALL circumstances that it does.
I travel in one direction. Sometimes forwards, backwards even sideways! Never all three at once.
Amazing comparison of sand and wind to ultimately being torn down and reassembled into some other order. Arenât we all at some evolutionary phase of entropy? Simply a fascinating conversation!
ya stoned
@@markroper6644 âŠ
but enthropy contradicts evolution
@@cloud42269 if entropy is the involvement of things becoming more chaotic and random over a period of time and evolution is a structured order of all things over a period of time; could we not see this not as one over the other but both, merely separated by phases or portions of time?
No. The castle of sand was assembled by a human being who thought about it using pictures, models of castles, and direct of real castles that were engineered by at least one engineer and/or architect, all of whom had brains with minds that directed their able hands! Those brains and hands were in turn designed by a SUPER ENGINNER, AN ARCHITECT AND the BUILDER of the UNIVERSE! The wind destroys the castle, and the body of sand does NOT "reassemble into some other order! The sand just comes back to the original state of disorder.
This is why I always feel like nothing is ever as âperfectâ or âdesignedâ as it was first meant to be, once something is put into motion it will continue to degrade/ depreciate as time goes on, until a force is placed upon to change the current path
diamonds are pretty up there with being everlasting... they can ultimately degrade eventually but it would be millions, or even billions, of years
This is one of my favorite videos of all time
You can hear the happiness in his voice.
Wow. Just wow. The production on this video was so immaculate. From the âsands of timeâ theme all the way through to the incredible location (I assume it was shot in Kolmanskop, an old abandoned town in Namibia). It took time for YT to recommend this to me but glad it did.
It's almost perfect. Can i ask why do you think it's Namibia ?
@@skevakler There's an abandoned town in Namibia that looks a lot like this scene- empty houses filled with sand... it was the first thing I thought when I saw it too :)
thank the algorithm of recommended videos.
it is kolmanskop! the buildings match up, and i actually lived in namibia!
"Most people think time is like a river, that flows swift and sure in one direction... but I have seen the face of time, and I can tell you: they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. You may wonder who I am and why I say this; sit down and I will tell you a tale like none that you have ever heard."
I wish that everyone spent a bit more time watching and learning about these things, instead of dedicating so much precious time to mind numbing social media. Motivation, education and dedication can change the world. Thank you Mr. Cox.
Bud, this is edutainment don't get it confused. This does not enrich you in any tangible, usable way.
@@jayocaine2946Anything that causes curiosity is enriching in every way possible. I am sorry that you cannot see that.
@@jayocaine2946 what a dumb comment
I could spend all day listening to Brian Cox. Brian Greene is another great one to listen to.
This is the single most understanding, easy definition of what entropy really is. I never understood it in high schools, so cool!
Same here. For some reason I struggled with the concept of entropy at school. This taught me more in 5 minutes than hours of classes did.
Well , according to Brian , it was inevitably going to become cool , sooner or later. đ
His hairstyle from one direction
More like justin bieber
đ
Needs more likes
He had that hairstyle when the one direction guys were still swimming in daddys' ball soup.
One direction what?
Your sentence makes no sense.
A compelling way to ultimately explain death and the universe. Before we are born we are nothing but atoms, we then exist as a being with low entropy form until one day we will have the same high entropy form as ash before returning to nothing but atoms. Its simultaneously beautiful and terrifying to think about.
'Apologies in advance for pedantry but words do matter, particularly when it comes to the understanding of scientific ideas. Brian Cox describes entropy in terms of being able to re-arrange the grains of sand and still keep the sand pile the same [shape]. As a non-scientist, isn't this contradictory? If something has been rearranged then it is, by definition, different. Also, around the [4:52] mark Brian states entropy always increases because it is overwhelmingly more likely that it will. That is fine as an observation but as an explanation it doesn't tell us anything as it sounds circular, as in "Entropy increases because it does."
Everybody needs a bit more Cox in them. Love his explanations.
I don't need more Cox in me.
"Honey, are we really abandonding the house?"
"Yes, dear. So in the future a scientist can make this area a good example of how to explain Entropy."
great way of describing how time only goes forward, as the low entropy universe travels towards a higher state of entropy.
How beautifully explained that was đđđ
By far WoTU was my favorite of the Wonders series and my favorite "science/physics/space" documentary ever. I really would love if they revisited the WoTU episodes and did new ones with updated information.
Wow I got recommend this 10 years later, but I am not mad. I revel in knowledge and love to learn. Not to mention Brian Cox voice is so soothing and just facilitates my ability to learn by demanding all my attention without suggesting it as in yelling at me to listen.
Sandcastles are overwhelmingly unlikely to form in the wind - this makes me really appreciate how overwhelmingly unlikely and precious structured creations like humans are
mmmm.... so just realize there is a major difference in those two processes. The sandcastle is just a placement process where relationship between the component parts is effectively independent of the other parts save the results of collisions due to shape and what not... whereas, the organic chemistry of life and the biological components that support it are very exclusive, very precise, and depend on finding the lowest energy state possible in terms of conformation of the molecules and the atoms/molecules involved. In other words, there are nearly uncountable ways to organize sand with sand, but in the case of chemistry, there are far less ways, and the system will find it's lowest energy state by itself, which is why chemistry is a predictable and understandable science. From a distance the complexity of a human seems unfathomable, but when you zoom in and look at a specific subsystem and how it works and it's small chemical structure and function, you see a repeating pattern of being in the lowest energy state, departing from it due to a specific interaction/stimulus, and then returning to that same lowest energy state. All these simple operations summate to a complex system, but the parts are simple... in the same way an economic transaction is simple, but when aggregated into an economy, they are not, and yet the whole complex economy is still reducible those same simple transactions.
@@jonc5152 And where does consciousness fit into this? How would you define its chemical composition? This is not a rhetorical or trick question.
@@mprado4177 no-one can understand what consciousness truly is and its origin, so presuming we can explain the concept of life away with what we know so far in science is naive to say the least
Brian is Incredible.. Love what he does.
Watching this without sound, I just see a grown up man playing with sand.
same
Same
same
I see the sand playing with a man.
In slow motion at times
Never heard like this Explanation..
He must be a Great Teacher đ«
The best way to explain entropy Iâve ever seen.
What Prof Cox is saying here is, in essence, that the arrow of time is an outcome of probability - if the transition from low entropy to high entropy is a probabilistic landscape, then that 'flow' of time is also probabilistic - and therefore it must probably (pun intended!) be in some way (as yet undiscovered) intrinsically bound up with the probabilistic nature of all quantum phenomena and the very fundamental structure of the Universe. But entropy CAN (in theory) also move from high to low - albeit extremely unlikely, it is nonetheless possible in probabilistic terms - and therefore in theory time can reverse, if we accept that entropy is the cause of time's arrow. It may be that it's so rare that it's never happened during the lifetime of the Universe, but it could happen tomorrow. I personally don't think that time is caused by entropy's flow, but is either a more mysterious phenomenon we haven't yet explained, or possibly time does not exist in its own right at all (see the works of Julian Barbour for interesting insights about the non-existence of time - he's out on the edge of mainstream physics ideas but possibly has something.)
I was with him up until the very last sentence. I lost him there đ€Ż
Yeah some more time on that would have been good. Presumably it's along the lines of, when you age & die your body might decay & be dispersed in many ways but the probability that it will reform as you with the spark of life is not equal to all other options, therefore it goes forward but not backwards?
I'm guessing that's the inference, but it seems separate to why we wouldn't walk backwards & talk & think backwards - if we did we'd be unremembering so we wouldn't know we were - but we use gravity to walk (fall forward) so there's that, but it still feels only half answered.
no one makes docos like the beeb, they really are the best.
Adam Ryan agreed, although channel 4 do a lot of great docs too.
Had the background score been the isolated system by muse,it would have been absolutely mental.
amazing video. love this man! but where was this shot? this looks like such a spooky place that i would love to visit someday.
Wonderful, captivating, so interesting and amazing. The wonder is huge master piece.
Thank you so much for the brilliant and uniq way to make us understand Complexities of Universe! â€ïž
Or the complexities of the sandcastle!
This is explanation of entropy not time
You might want to look up the concept of arrow of time.
Time can be expressed by measuring a difference in entropy. The big bang had low entropy, yet now we have much higher entropy and it will continue to increase... Or something like that
Time doesn't exist, if it does, then it's merely a scale we use to measure the process of low entropy ==> high entropy
Almost had a stroke reading this small thread but I think I get it
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_of_time
Its the same thing.
Absolutely amazing ...as a librar arts student I never understood science back in school now I know why my teacher wasn't named brian cox
As an engineer and having taking a lot of classes, I dealt with entropy in Thermodynamic and Heat Transfer classes the most. I always used this simple example to describe entropy: You can never unscramble an egg
Feed it to a chicken.
Fantastic lesson as usual. I don't know if Brian still works as a lecturer for a University at all but if he did, I'm sure he would dramatically raise the uptake, retention and pass rates, easily! It would be brilliant to be part of a "live" lecture with him guiding the ship.
He lectures physics at Uni of Manchester
@@MD-ji2ct oh great, I'll sign up for a course then !
At the end of the day. It is night.
Ive hated anyone in real life who has ever said that
You would be best telling that to someone who actually gives a shit. @@mikec4308
Wrong,end of the DAY is Y!
Yes. Y. I ask myself that at least one every three or five days Y.
This was a better explanation of why time dont scoot both ways then this video đ
It's implied that he know why that happens. Marvelous.
It might not always travel in one direction, it doesnât always in quantum physics at atomic scales and itâs possible that antimatter travels backwards in time which would perhaps explain why thereâs no antimatter in the universe, it travels backwards in time.
This clip from part of the series is, hands down, the best scientific video for non-scientists for tv ever produced. Brian Cox is genius in this one, brilliant as a whole; -My ten year old son understands it after watching it perfectly fine.
Big bang and black holes can be understood by younger still. Head-to-head with Disney.
Agree. Bless Professor Cox, for he is a Meritorious person whose deeds will being many great things to Humanity, for the people he inspires, including your son, my son, and all the other kids who will grow up to become scientists
Yes, everything is moving towards entropy. Moving towards change. Everything changes along the way. Everything...
Nothing escapes it. It doesn't matter to what it changes to, it just does it.
Our lives are nothing but matter changing within the movement of the universe. We assign a numerical measurement "time" so we can understand the movement of entropy. Brian explains it very well.
The order and speed of matter's movement at the universe level is in one direction and that direction is to total decay of matter down to the smallest parts of matter. At this time of our knowledge, down to the quatum level. Then the question is, "where does it begin to reassemble?"
Great presentation!!!
Great explanation about entropy James Blunt!!
Thank you for explaining entropy that way. I thought I understood entropy but I now know that I didn't. Now I do. Thanks!
how concepts should be taught in schools... simple, clear cut, easy to understand
âIt seems incredible that a law that says Sandcastles donât spontaneously form under wind, could solve one the deepest mysteries in physics, but by saying entropy always increases, the second law of thermodynamics, is able to explain why time only runs in one direction.â
Beautifully said. This is my new catchphrase. The whole thing. Everytime.
This video has travelled 10 years through time to meet me and you đ§
CZcams algorithms working overtime
What are the odds huh đ€
Feels like the wind has blown these sand particles into a CZcams Algorithm Sandcastle!
I love how dramatic the music is talking about entropy
Brian Cox: "For now let me create spme order in the Universe."
- Introduces a colonized sand castle
lol
Piss off snowflake
haha great
Yes time only runs in one direction, from past to future. You cant go into the past unless you have a camera and you can record moments of past and see them in future. That's the closest we have come to time travel. Otherwise tangibly its impossible to go from past to future or future to past because you will disrupt the very laws of universe. Thus time travel is impossible and time runs in only one direction. Time travel is only a myth and fictional.
@@GeekRaj time travel to the future is possible... To the past is still a bit debatable..
There are ways which we can use to achieve this... We might need tonnes of negative energy, or stuff like that which might be very hard to gather, but it's definitely plausible
It's hard not to smile when Brain speaks to you with such a smiley face. yeah, science! :D
You mean that cheesy grin that says I know better than you?.....yeah great.
He seems childlike in his excitement and love for the subject
@@andyw2244 He does know better than you.
@@joshrkessler That's what he wants you to think.