More accurate clocks may add more disorder to the universe, scientists say

Live Science ^ | May 17, 2021 | Ben Turner - Staff Writer

[LucyT]

What’s the price of an accurate clock? Entropy, a new study has revealed.

Entropy — or disorder — is created every time a clock ticks. Now scientists working with a tiny clock have proven a simple relationship: The more accurate a clock runs, the more entropy it generates.

"If you want your clock to be more accurate, you’ve got to pay for it,” study co-author Natalia Ares, a physicist at the University of Oxford, told Live Science. “Every time we measure time, we are increasing the universe’s entropy."

As we go forward in time, the second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a system must increase. Known as the "arrow of time," entropy is one of the few quantities in physics that sets time to go in a particular direction — from the past, where entropy was low, to the future, where it will be high.

This tendency for disorder to grow in the universe explains many things, such as why it’s easier to mix ingredients together than separate them out, or why headphone wires get so intricately tangled together in pants pockets.

[Jamestown1630]

Battery or electric?

[Jamestown1630]

I don’t want to know the time, when I’m in my bubble bath :-)

[21twelve]

LOL - yes. Favorite band is Rush!

I’m guessing that the words you wrote are from some book or quote, and they (well, Neil Peart that wrote the lyrics and was a real book fiend) were inspired by them.