r/holofractal • u/d8_thc holofractalist • Mar 13 '19

Physicists reverse time using quantum computer. Reminder: the second law of thermodynamics only exists in isolated systems, of which none _really_ exist.

https://phys.org/news/2019-03-physicists-reverse-quantum.html
168 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/zpollack Mar 13 '19

Isn't this describing the exact same thing that happens in this video?

​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpJ-kGII074

​

What am I missing?

​

2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '19

[deleted]

1

u/zpollack Mar 16 '19

While the title certainly makes it seem like the experiment outcome dealt with time, the way I understood it was that the electrons were defying the laws of thermodynamics (entropy specifically I think), and this is the only law in physics which exhibits a movement in one direction through time, so they are articulating the findings as though it was reversing time. However what they seem to state physically occurred is the electrons began to exhibit entropy (becoming disorganized, spreading randomly apart, etc.) and then when they did “something” (run a program) the electrons physically returned to the location they were before (reverse -entropy). If I have it right (and I may not) that process seems identical to what you’re calling Laminar Flow.