In this article we will present a small, on the one hand, joking, but on the other hand, completely scientific theory with which you can justify yourself in those moments when laziness has taken over you.

The fact is that in physics there is such a thermodynamic value as entropy. Its scientific value defines the measure of irreversible energy dissipation. In other cases, it can also determine the probability of any macroscopic state. However, let us say, it is easier to understand the meaning of entropy as a measure of system disorderedness “in everyday life”: the less system elements are subordinated to some order, the higher entropy is.

Here let’s make a small clarifying remark about what the order is. It is very important, because the situation when something is evenly distributed in the available space can be called disorder or chaos (if, for example, we are talking about garbage evenly thrown on the floor in the room). But such a situation can be called order (if we are talking, for example, about a qualitatively and evenly painted wall), here who has what, and who has what associations…

However, we will agree for the needs of this article that, like all physicists and other scientists, we will understand by order the presence of some expressed structure in the system (for example, the existence of specific subjects in certain points of space), and by disorder – the uniform distribution of all kinds of matter in space. In this case, entropy is a measure of disorder.

At the moment, the universe is in relative order. We have many cosmic bodies, each of them has its own shape, size and properties, all of them located in certain places. Thus, there is a certain structure in our system.

But, unfortunately, science has unequivocally proved that entropy in closed thermodynamic systems can only increase or remain unchanged. Thus, any system aspires to disorder, i.e. to uniform distribution of all available matter in accessible space. This statement can be locally broken, i.e. in some areas of space the part of elements making system, can aspire and to the order, but all closed system as a whole, always aspires only to disorder or keeps the reached level of disorder. In other words, if somewhere there is a little more order, then somewhere else the disorder becomes even more disorder.

So if we apply the law of non-dismissalment of entropy (disorder) to the universe as a whole, it turns out that one day all matter must spread evenly across the universe. In this case, there will be no separated objects such as stars or planets. The whole space will be absolutely uniformly filled with homogeneous porridge of different particles. And entropy (or disorder) will reach its final maximum.

This state is called the Thermal Death of the Universe. There are different estimates as to when it should happen. Either way, it’s one of the most remote doomsday scenarios in the world. If the universe eventually comes to this exact state, it will happen in very, very many billion years.

Another important feature of entropy is that it only increases if something happens, and vice versa, if something happens, then entropy necessarily increases. And if nothing happens, then entropy at least remains the same.

But since any increase in entropy, i.e. the disorder, brings us closer to the Thermal Death of the Universe, it turns out that nothing is happening yet, then this end, at least, is not approaching. And as soon as certain events begin to take place, the Thermal Death of the Universe necessarily approaches us in time.

Of course, a human being cannot do absolutely nothing, he must at least breathe, his heart beats, other processes take place in the organism. However, if a person just lies on the sofa, the entropy increases much slower than if a person takes up active work.

This effect is of course very weak, numerical estimates are again very difficult, but in any case, the contribution of one person and his way of life when the Thermal Death of the Universe is calculated in the smallest fraction of a second. Taking into account the fact that this event itself is billions of years away from us, it turns out that the relative influence of each person on this process is very little. However, strictly speaking, from a scientific point of view, this effect is still present. Therefore, it is possible to justify your laziness scientifically by the fact that you strive to postpone as much as possible the moment of the Thermal Death of the Universe.

For the sake of truth let us note that the Thermal Death of the Universe is only a hypothesis, only one of several dozens of possible scenarios of the development of events and how the end of the Universe will come. Many of the alternative theories of the development of events at all do not assume that ever the Universe should have some sad end. And the hypothesis about the Thermal Death of the Universe is far from the most justified of all these theories. And most importantly, the very existence of a large number of such theories indicates that science, unfortunately, is still unknown to the true scenario of the development of the universe in the future, and perhaps the correct theory in this regard so far has not even been proposed.

The main conclusions on which the hypothesis of the Thermal Death of the Universe is based are made on a theory that works well for systems such as the ideal gas, also this hypothesis assumes that all kinds of energy will eventually move to the thermal, and that our universe is a closed system.

At the same time, our universe is most likely not so simple that it can be described on the basis of the ideal gas model, in particular its components are attracted by gravitational forces, unlike the molecules of ideal gas, which in some approximation do not interact. Also, there is no certainty that all energy in the universe must go exactly to the thermal. And about the fact that our Universe is a closed system recently some scientists began to have doubts.

So, to sum up. In this article we talked a little bit about entropy, learned what it characterizes and how it behaves in closed thermodynamic systems. We also got acquainted with one of the hypotheses about what will be the final state of the universe. And on the basis of this information they came up with a joking excuse for human laziness, which of course does not need to be taken too close to heart, should not use it too often, and you can just someday with a very clever kind of successful joke.