Arrow of time

High school (ages 12+)
Philosophy & Big Questions

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/arrow-of-time

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific concept?The arrow of time (temporal asymmetry)
2. What is the key proponent?Arthur Eddington (1927)
3. Why does time only go forward?Because of entropy, which means things become more disordered over time, and this change can’t easily go backward.
4. How does entropy show the arrow of time?Entropy measures disorder; when a deck of cards is shuffled, it becomes more random, and it’s very unlikely to shuffle back to the original order, showing time’s direction.

Temporal Asymmetry: The property of time having a distinct direction, from past to future.
Statistical Mechanics: A branch of physics that uses probability to explain the behavior of large numbers of particles.
Second Law of Thermodynamics: States that the total entropy of an isolated system tends to increase over time.
Entropy: A measure of disorder, randomness, or the unavailability of energy to do work in a system.