Loschmidt's paradox
Paradoja de Loschmidt
- Date
- 1876 · confidence high
- Place
- Vienna, Austria
- Credited to
- Johann Josef Loschmidt
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Objection raised by Loschmidt: if the microscopic laws are time-reversible, they should not yield the irreversible macroscopic behaviour described by the second law of thermodynamics.
What it led to
- Debate over the statistical basis of entropy
- Development of and replies to Boltzmann's H-theorem
- Influence on nonequilibrium physics and the arrow of time