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Destruction is easiest than construction.

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iamnotaparakeet
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25 Nov 2011, 8:17 am

It is easier to tear down than to build up. It's far simpler to destroy than to construct. One can always find faults and errors, but who is actually willing to create rather than to nitpick away at the works of others?



phil777
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25 Nov 2011, 9:39 am

Probably unrelevant, but Legos aren't as easy to "destroy" or take apart, if you will, than they are to put together to create something. <.<



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25 Nov 2011, 12:21 pm

The natural direction of the universe is toward greater disorder.

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visagrunt
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25 Nov 2011, 1:15 pm

ruveyn wrote:
The natural direction of the universe is toward greater disorder.

ruveyn


Unless, of course, it reaches an equilibrium point and begins to contract.


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25 Nov 2011, 1:22 pm

at times, destruction is more constructive than construction.


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ruveyn
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25 Nov 2011, 8:53 pm

visagrunt wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
The natural direction of the universe is toward greater disorder.

ruveyn


Unless, of course, it reaches an equilibrium point and begins to contract.


It doesn't contract. At the state of total disorder it stays there in the statistical sense. There is no more high grade (Gibbs free energy) energy left to contract anything. Where does a smoke right go when it dissipates?

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donnie_darko
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26 Nov 2011, 5:23 pm

I wouldn't say that's necessarily true. Some things would be extremely difficult to dismantle.



visagrunt
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29 Nov 2011, 2:53 pm

ruveyn wrote:
It doesn't contract. At the state of total disorder it stays there in the statistical sense. There is no more high grade (Gibbs free energy) energy left to contract anything. Where does a smoke right go when it dissipates?

ruveyn


That is the case only if the expansion has sufficient energy to overcome gravitation--a circumstance not yet demonstrated.

But if gravitation overcomes exapansion, then the question will arise as to whether matter is coalescing into a more ordered state as it does so, and whether this will lead to an inversion of the second law of thermodynamics. Not the intuitive likelihood, but a fun one to contemplate.


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dmm1010
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29 Nov 2011, 3:12 pm

donnie_darko wrote:
I wouldn't say that's necessarily true. Some things would be extremely difficult to dismantle.

It's difficult, i.e., it requires energy, to dismantle something if the end products would have lower entropy. An example of this phenomenon would be attempting to break apart a helium-4 nucleus.