The Nature of the Physical World¶
Eddington, A. S. (1928). The Nature of the Physical World. Cambridge University Press.
Cited by¶
3 citations across 3 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Irreversibility
- Eddington's coinage of the term
This sourceCoins the phrase "arrow of time" to describe the asymmetry of time imposed by the Second Law of thermodynamics: the future is distinguished from the past by the direction of entropy increase. Establishes the connection between thermodynamic irreversibility and temporal asymmetry as a fundamental feature of physics.
Supported in partVerified against the work's full text
Eddington introduces and defines the phrase 'time's arrow' in his own lectures as the one-way property of time tied to growth of randomness; the text does not itself assert that he coined it or that no earlier writer used it.
“I shall use the phrase "time's arrow" to express this one-way property of time which has no analogue in space.”
- Eddington's coinage of the term
- Second Law of Thermodynamics
- Eddington's concept of the "arrow of time"
This sourceCoins the phrase "arrow of time" to describe the asymmetry of time imposed by the Second Law of thermodynamics: the future is distinguished from the past by the direction of entropy increase. Establishes the connection between thermodynamic irreversibility and temporal asymmetry as a fundamental feature of physics.
Supported in partVerified against the work's full text
Eddington's text carries the notion in his own words: once the universe reaches thermodynamical equilibrium, “Time's arrow will then be lost altogether and the whole conception of progress towards a future fades away”, the arrow being tied there to the second law of thermodynamics. A direction of time grounded in entropy increase is the concept the sentence attributes to him. The passage reads Time's arrow rather than arrow of time, and shows the concept in use rather than establishing that the phrase originates there.
“I shall use the phrase "time's arrow" to express this one-way property of time which has no analogue in space.”
- Eddington's concept of the "arrow of time"
- Time
- Time is not merely an observer's measurement device; it is a constitutive feature of how systems evolve, how entropy increases, and how causation propagates, as Eddington (1928) crystallized in coining the phrase "arrow of time" to describe the irreversible asymmetry observed in macroscopic processes.
This sourceCoins the phrase "arrow of time" to describe the asymmetry of time imposed by the Second Law of thermodynamics: the future is distinguished from the past by the direction of entropy increase. Establishes the connection between thermodynamic irreversibility and temporal asymmetry as a fundamental feature of physics.
Supported in partVerified against the work's full text
Eddington introduces the phrase 'time's arrow' for time's one-way property tied to increasing randomness (entropy), but does not frame time as constitutive of causation propagating, nor claim to coin it.
“I shall use the phrase "time's arrow" to express this one-way property of time which has no analogue in space.”
- Time is not merely an observer's measurement device; it is a constitutive feature of how systems evolve, how entropy increases, and how causation propagates, as Eddington (1928) crystallized in coining the phrase "arrow of time" to describe the irreversible asymmetry observed in macroscopic processes.
Verification¶
Does it exist? Not checked yet. This entry carries no identifier to resolve. It was extracted from the citation as written in the article, normalized, and deduplicated against the rest of the registry.
Does it back the claim? Read against the text for 3 of 3 citations: 3 supported in part. Each verdict is shown under its citation below, with what in the work backs the sentence.
Support is checked per citation rather than per work — the same source can be cited soundly in one article and wrongly in another. Per-citation recording began recently, so a citation with no recorded check is a gap in the record rather than evidence it went unchecked.
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Registry ID ref:398c2c42aeab · see in the full table