5 ms·

> After some time, most of the particles in the coffee are correlated with air particles; the coffee has reached thermal equilibrium. No doubt this is some way

> After some time, most of the particles in the coffee are correlated with air particles; the coffee has reached thermal equilibrium. No doubt this is some way oversimplified explanation, but it still makes no sense. Say I have hot coffee and lukewarm coffee. The lukewarm coffee will equilibrate faster. Does it interact with the air faster? What if I bring in coffee that's the same temperature as the air, so that it's instantly at equilibrium. Does it interact with the air instantly?

jostylr 13y ago
There's also the question of heating up the coffee. Are you disentangling it from the air and entangling it with the hot particles below? It does not make sense to equate equilibrium with entanglement. We have two systems that have been isolated from each other. Then they get together and get entangled. The number of states in which they have come to thermal equilibrium while entangled is far greater than the number in which they do not. They are being entangled, but that is just the process of putting the systems together, a necessary step in removing their isolationist tendencies, I would imagine. So entanglement is part of the process, but the classical notion of the evolution going to "more states" is still there. But going towards equilibrium is more general than isolationist --> entangled. Whatever your state psi is of the system, it is likely to evolve, if it can, into a state that belongs to a more numerous class.
nzp 13y ago
> Say I have hot coffee and lukewarm coffee. The lukewarm coffee will equilibrate faster. It won't (all else being equal). :) Because of Newton's law of cooling, hot coffee will cool down faster (precisely, the rate of change of temperature of a solid body is proportional to the difference in temperature between the body and the environment).
- judk 13y ago
  Parent meant "sooner" not "faster". The derivative of temperature was not intended, the dervative of entanglement was intended.

jostylr 13y ago

There's also the question of heating up the coffee. Are you disentangling it from the air and entangling it with the hot particles below? It does not make sense to equate equilibrium with entanglement. We have two systems that have been isolated from each other. Then they get together and get entangled. The number of states in which they have come to thermal equilibrium while entangled is far greater than the number in which they do not. They are being entangled, but that is just the process of putting the systems together, a necessary step in removing their isolationist tendencies, I would imagine. So entanglement is part of the process, but the classical notion of the evolution going to "more states" is still there. But going towards equilibrium is more general than isolationist --> entangled. Whatever your state psi is of the system, it is likely to evolve, if it can, into a state that belongs to a more numerous class.

nzp 13y ago

> Say I have hot coffee and lukewarm coffee. The lukewarm coffee will equilibrate faster. It won't (all else being equal). :) Because of Newton's law of cooling, hot coffee will cool down faster (precisely, the rate of change of temperature of a solid body is proportional to the difference in temperature between the body and the environment).

judk 13y ago
Parent meant "sooner" not "faster". The derivative of temperature was not intended, the dervative of entanglement was intended.