Difference between revisions 5701329 and 5701332 on simplewiki

< previous diff
next diff >
Heat death of the universe
The idea of the heat death of the universe, proposed in 1851 by [[w:William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin|William Thomson]], stems from the [[second law of thermodynamics]], which states that [[heat]] tends to pass from hotter to colder bodies and eventually becomes uniformly distributed. As an elementary particle of matter (such as a proton) self&#8209;gravitationally shrinks, its heat becomes intensified ("augmented") to a higher temperature and then radiated away into the ambient vacuum:
(contracted; show full)
<center>[[Image:Dendritic_drainage_system.jpg|200px]]</center>
As the peripheral protons move towards the continuum's central proton, whose accelerating influence intensifies in accordance with the [[
inverse-Inverse-square law|inverse&#8209;square law]], they radiate away their rest mass, so that their resistance to acceleration decreases. Having radiated away a half of their initial rest mass, the peripheral protons instantaneously tunnel into the continuum's central proton.

==Evolution of the idea==
(contracted; show full)In 1974, [[Stephen Hawking]] applied the above&#8209;described principle of heat death to black holes and found that they, too, radiate away their energy ([[Hawking radiation]]) and consequently shrink in size; the smaller a black hole becomes, the faster it radiates away its remaining energy.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Thermodynamics]]
[[Category:Universe]]