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The Most Misunderstood Concept in Physics

Veritasium · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Fundamental physics

What it is

Veritasium's explainer on entropy, presented as one of physics' most important and least understood concepts. It uses examples such as heat engines and the sun's energy flowing through the Earth.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters say it made entropy intuition click and point to it in threads on energy, heat and equilibrium.

  • 5 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2023, last 2024

What HN commenters said

  1. “This veritasium video explained it in a way that finally clicked for me”

    Made entropy intuition finally click

    shorefire, 2024-12 · Strong recommendation · in “What is entropy? A measure of just how little we know”

  2. “Maybe watch this video about entropy.”

    Explains entropy as a calculating tool

    rspoerri, 2023-08 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Why is LK-99 public?”

  3. “This Veritasium video gives a good idea of what we do get from the sun”

    Good idea of what we get from the sun

    jameshart, 2023-08 · Recommendation · in “Earth’s hottest month: these charts show what happened in July; what comes next”

  4. “This is a great video that touches on your point”

    Earth must radiate received heat to stay in equilibrium

    theossuary, 2024-02 · Recommendation · in “'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech”

  5. “I like my entropy story with more steam engines”

    Entropy explained with steam engines

    xtiansimon, 2024-10 · Recommendation · in “Entropy Explained, with Sheep (2016)”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: entropy, thermodynamics, physics, veritasium, energy

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