Abstract
PROF. K. R. POPPER has recently pointed out the error in the belief that “ ‘classical’ mechanics … can describe physical processes only in so far as they are reversible in time”1. He cites the spreading of water waves resulting from a dropped stone as an example of a ‘classical’ process which is irreversible. This example is, however, not altogether convincing, since it is not obvious that a reversed set of water waves cannot be set up by a system of generators, coherently operating on the periphery of the water wave system; also, the propagation of water waves is in any event irreversible by virtue of being a dissipative process, while Popper's argument was for irreversibility of the waves on other grounds.
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References
Popper, K. R., Nature, 177, 538 (1956).
Morpurgo, G., Radicati, L. A., and Touschek, B. F., Nuwo Cimento, 12, 677 (1954).
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SCHLEGEL, R. Irreversibility and Mechanics. Nature 178, 381–382 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1038/178381a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/178381a0
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