Shattered Mirror

Jacob-B July 14, 2019 at 18:01 2300 views 5 comments

Suppose you have framed round mirror that due to internal stresses shattered into multiple shards of variety of sizes and shapes which nevertheless are still held together within the fame. Thinking about it raised in my mind certain questions:

The shattered and patternless mirror has higher degree of disorder than the intact mirror, That should imply that it has higher entropy but at the same time the time because the fragments are still being held within the frame the new arrangement has only one degree of freedom which would imply no change in entropy. Is that so?

To describe mathematically the geometry of the shattered mirror would be immensely more difficult than the mathematical description of the intact mirror. Is it a general rule that the higher the entropy of a system the more difficult it is to describe it?

Does the shattered mirror carry more information than the intact on?

From aesthetic point of view , can one say that the shattered mirror is more: interesting - evocative -pleasing than the intact one?

Comments (5)

Valentinus July 14, 2019 at 22:12 #306912 0 likes

The fragments can only be more interesting than a single plane of reflection if the pattern reflects something that happened to it. A structure of deconstruction.

god must be atheist July 16, 2019 at 09:44 #307300 0 likes

Quoting Jacob-B

Is it a general rule that the higher the entropy of a system the more difficult it is to describe it?

In general, the physics qualities of randomized orderliness is harder to describe.

If you take a cube or a round ball, you can describe the physics of air flow around it if there is an air flow around it easier than if you shatter the ball or cube into smithereens and try to describe the air flow around the cube or ball in this broken-up stage.

In fact, organization does cost money (in terms of entropy) because it costs money to eliminate randomness. The money you spent on eliminating randomness you get back on the reduction of costs of handling the simplicity of the ordered object. So to speak.

Jacob-B July 16, 2019 at 19:35 #307420 0 likes

Reply to god must be atheist
I wonder if the same applied to natural organization e.g snowflakes, crystals...
Does their creation result in an increase in entropy? I suppose they do for the reason you have mentioned.

god must be atheist July 16, 2019 at 20:03 #307423 0 likes

Snowflakes are more random than not, I'd venture to say. Because their cristalline forms are determined by the angle hydrogen and oxygen atoms form in the water (ice) molecules, and considering there are no two identical snowflakes.

Hanover July 16, 2019 at 20:03 #307424 0 likes

Quoting Jacob-B

The shattered and patternless mirror has higher degree of disorder than the intact mirror,

How do you measure disorder other than subjectively, based upon intended purpose? I get that the shattered mirror looks patternless on a macro level to a human observer, but wouldn't you expect patternlessness on the quantum level and wouldn't you expect the pattern of the mirror fracture to be precisely the pattern expected based upon the forces used to fracture it?