Counterintuitive Facts (46): Why Does Your Room Always Get Messy on Its Own?

I. You just cleaned your room. Two months later, it's a mess again. You just bought earbuds. Put them in your pocket for ten minutes. Pull them out and the wire is tangled. You might blame yourself for being lazy, blame bad luck. But physicists tell you: no, this is the universe's deepest operating system.

II. Second Law of Thermodynamics states: In a closed system, Entropy (i.e., disorder) will always increase, never spontaneously decrease. Why? Because probability. "Tangled earbud wire" has infinite states. Tangled in a ball, tied in a dead knot, wrapped together. "Neat earbud wire" has only one state. Without external force, things always evolve toward more probable states. From order to disorder. From structure to rubble. From life to death.

III. This law is the universe's constitution