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Chaos in physics is often considered analogous to thermodynamic entropy. Chaos is a poetic or metaphysical concept evoking a sense of discord, whereas entropy is a concretely defined function of a physical system. See entropy for the mathematical quantification of the disorder in a system. Physical chaos might be conceived as utter confusion, an incomprehensible and heterogeneous mess. This intuitive notion is at odds with the famous Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that entropy cannot decrease in a closed system. Maximized entropy always corresponds to apparent homogeneity in a system. Any random disturbance of a homogeneous system results in no meaningful change, therefore scientists will say the randomness, i.e. chaos, is maximized. Such systems are observed as being isotropic. Thermodynamics (from the Greek thermos meaning heat and dynamics meaning power) is a branch of physics that studies the effects of changes in temperature, pressure, and volume on physical systems at the macroscopic scale by analyzing the collective motion of their particles using statistics. ... The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poiesis, making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, known today as the father of geometry; shown here in a detail of The School of Athens by Raphael. ... Physics (from the Greek, (phúsis), nature and (phusiké), knowledge of nature) is the science concerned with the discovery and understanding of the fundamental laws which govern matter, energy, space, and time. ... Ice melting - classic example of entropy increasing[1] described in 1862 by Rudolf Clausius as an increase in the disgregation of the molecules of the body of ice. ... The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy. ... Part of a scientific laboratory at the University of Cologne. ... Isotropic means independent of direction. Isotropic radiation has the same intensity regardless of the direction of measurement, and an isotropic field exerts the same action regardless of how the test particle is oriented. ...

As with any scientific concept or mathematical abstraction, entropy may not be equally applicable in every situation. For example, it is unknown whether protons may remain forever free and unchanged, or whether they are subject to destruction by cosmological randomness. // For alternative meanings see proton (disambiguation). ... The decay of a proton, a baryon, into non-baryonic matter, does not occur perturbatively in the Standard Model. ...

Chaos Theory describes the behavior of certain nonlinear dynamical systems that under certain conditions exhibit a phenomenon known as chaos. Among the characteristics of chaotic systems, described below, is sensitivity to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). As a result of this sensitivity, the behavior of systems that exhibit chaos appears to be random, even though the system is deterministic in the sense that it is well defined and contains no random parameters. However, chaos in physics is strongly contrasted with the human notion of chaos. Chaotic systems, with no central control, are able to create "order", which is the pattern that humans recognize. Biological systems are well-known examples. Potential applications are found in nanotechnology, where self-assembling systems have been developed. A plot of the trajectory Lorenz system for values r = 28, σ = 10, b = 8/3 In mathematics and physics, chaos theory describes the behavior of certain nonlinear dynamical systems that under certain conditions exhibit a phenomenon known as chaos. ... In mathematics, nonlinear systems represent systems whose behavior is not expressible as a sum of the behaviors of its descriptors. ... A dynamical system is a concept in mathematics where a fixed rule describes the time dependence of a point in a geometrical space. ... Point attractors in 2D phase space. ... The word random is used to express lack of purpose, cause, order, or predictability in non-scientific parlance. ... A deterministic system is a conceptual model of the philosophical doctrine of determinism applied to a system for understanding everything that has and will occur in the system, based on the physical outcomes of causality. ...

See also "Self-Organization and Modern Evolution Theory".