Loschmidt Paradox

Time-reversal symmetry vs irreversibility — flip all velocities and watch what happens

N = 60
1.0×
0% noise

Josef Loschmidt's 1876 Objection

If Newton's laws are time-reversible, then for every trajectory where entropy increases, there exists a reversed trajectory (flip all velocities) where entropy decreases equally. So why does entropy always increase?

Demonstration: run the gas forward until it mixes, then flip all velocities. With no perturbation, the gas perfectly retraces its path and unmixes! Add even a tiny perturbation, and chaos amplifies it — the reversal fails. This shows irreversibility is deeply tied to sensitivity to initial conditions (chaos) and the exponential improbability of anti-thermodynamic initial conditions.

T-reversal: (x,v) → (x,−v) — mechanically valid, thermodynamically improbable