reach the dense state of matter, that perhaps existed before the explosion that may have led to the prese nt state of the part of the universe that is now visible to us. Then, the motions of the entities existing i n this previous state, whatever they may have been, would have contributed to making the eclipse occur in the wa y that it did. But these motions would be contingent on something still earlier. And so on without limit. It is clear, moreover, that the eclipse of the moon is a phenomenon that is subject to an exceptionally simp le type of determination, because of the approximate isolation of the earth and moon from other things. In other processes, where the degree of isolation is much less, the intertwining and fusion of the effects of more and more contingencies and more different qualities as we go further back is much greater. Thus, over a n infinite period of time, the determination of even the essential features of an effect is evidently not purel y mechanical, because it involves not only an infinite number of contingent factors but also an infinity of kinds of qualities, properties, laws of connection, all of which themselves undergo fundamental changes with the passage of time. 11. REVERSIBILITY VERSUS IRREVERSIBILITY OF THE LAWS OF NATURE In this section we shall make a few remarks concerning the implications of the q ualitative infinity of nature with regard to the question of whether the laws of nature are reversible or irre versible. It is well known that thus far the laws of microscopic physics have demonstrated themselves to be reversible. This follows from the fact that starting with any solution of the ba sic equations for the system (Newton s laws of motion, the laws of relativity, the laws of quantum theory), ano ther possible solution can be found by replacing the time,* t, by its negative, t. Physically this means tha t given any motion, it is always possible, in principle at least, for a similar motion to take place, whic h is, however, executed in the reverse order. Of course, to obtain such a reversal of motion in reality, we wou ld have to alter the boundary conditions appropriately (e.g. reverse all the velocities of the various particl es, rates of change of the fields, etc.). Such a reversal does not, in general, occur spontaneously, at least withi n any practically significant periods of time. To show that this is so let us consider, for example, two boxes of gas, one containing hydrogen and the other containing oxygen, and let us imagine that we open a tube that connects them. As is MORE GENERAL CONCEPT OF NATURAL LAW 109 well known, the gases will diffuse into each other. The reason is, of course, th at the complicated and irregular motions of the hydrogen molecules will tend to carry them into the cha mber originally containing oxygen, while similar motions of the oxygen molecules will tend to carry them in to the chamber originally containing the hydrogen. As we have seen in Chapter II, Section 12, such process es can be treated in terms of the laws of chance, so that the theory of probability can be applied to them.
Since over a long period of
time it is equally probable that any particular molecule will occupy any given r egion of space, we conclude that on the average and in the long run we will obtain a practically uniform mix ture of hydrogen and oxygen. It is characteristic of the laws of chance, however, that fluctuations a way from the average can occur, although large fluctuations are very rare. A simple calculation, using th e appropriate law of probability for these fluctuations, shows, for example, that a chance combinatio n of motions that led all the hydrogen and oxygen back into their original containers would, under typical con ditions, not occur for 10l010 years (i.e. 1 followed by ten thousand million zeros). Clearly, then, alt hough the motion may in principle reverse, the probability that this will happen is so small that we may for practical purposes ignore this possibility, especially considering the fact that, in any case, the contain ers of gas could not possibly last for such a long time. It is possible by means of analysis described above to understand the observed i rreversibility in various physical phenomenon, such as the flow of heat, the establishment of thermal and mechanical equilibrium in fluids, etc. But this still leaves us with a disturbing problem. For the above r eduction of the observed irreversibility of certain large-scale phenomena to the effects of chance does n ot alter the fact that the fundamental equations of motion are reversible, so that there is no inherent rea son why processes in general must necessarily always take place in one direction only, since either direction would in principle be possible. Thus, if all the velocities and rates of change of fields did actually manage to be reversed for any reason whatever (e.g. by chance), then heat could go from a lower to a higher te mperature, water could flow from the sea back to its sources in the mountains, etc. The fact that these even ts are so fantastically improbable does not detract from the problem of principle presented here, which is this: Do the generally irrevocable effects of the passage of time in so wide a range of fields really c ome out of nothing more than the random mixing or shuffling according to the laws of chance of molecular and other types of motion, the reversal of which is in principle possible but in practice too improbable to be considered as having any real importance?