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The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy cannot decrease over time. If entropy is simply the description of how "uniformly" spread out energy is over space then doesn't it follow, as a simple definitional necessity, that the force pushing galaxies apart is simply the universe annealing into global minima through the process of the spreading energy as the 2nd law of thermodynamics dictates? It seems with this explanation, we wouldn't have to invoke a principle that an "opposing" energy exists because what we imagine to be dark energy is simply the process of entropy increasing (a virtual by-product).

It just seems so obvious, that I'm surprised I can't find anything to rule this out. So does anything rule this out?

aiwyn
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    I had the same thought three years ago,see entropic force and entropic gravity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropic_force – Paul Feb 21 '17 at 13:02
  • Exactly. It might also help explain why we haven't discovered the particle(s) associated with the phenomenon. Intuitively, we wouldn't find a particle because it's just a virtual effect (i.e. an emergent property). – aiwyn Feb 21 '17 at 13:10
  • Entropic force might also explain why dark matter doesn't seem to increase entropy (because it, too, is a virtual effect), as proposed by this question http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/131207/how-does-dark-matter-collapse-entropy-considerations?rq=1 – aiwyn Feb 21 '17 at 13:16
  • No, if you apply the normal equations of entropy (or statistic mechanics and thermodynamics )to the normal equations of gravity, i.e., general relativity, and ignore dark mass or energy, you never get that annealing effect, and you never get anything like what is observed. Entropic gravity adds something else, your argument does not hold up. – Bob Bee Feb 22 '17 at 05:25
  • Plus entropic gravity has not been taken too seriously in the last few years. – Bob Bee Feb 22 '17 at 05:26
  • @BobBee Could you provide a little more insight in the form of an answer? – aiwyn Feb 22 '17 at 09:13
  • @aiwyn. Thanks for the invite. It's complicated to explain it and do it justice in a real answer. I'd just recommend you read up some on the current basis of what we know of cosmology (plenty reviews out there, the Dodelson book though a few years old still very good and a standard), maybe a bit on general relativity, and then read something on entropic gravity. It's hard to not see how speculative it is. And keep in mind the principle that anything new physics has to reduce to known physics in the appropriate limits - like quantum mechanics reduces to Newtonian for non microscopic objects. – Bob Bee Feb 23 '17 at 05:26

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