Newton Predicted It

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 349, 1 March 1946, Page 13

Newton Predicted It

NTROPY continually increases .. , This law (the second law of thermodynamics) holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of nature." In these words Eddington sums up the effect of Newton’s famous proposition that all things tend continually to become more and more disarranged, and prophesies that this will go on until the universe becomes a uniform mixture of indistinguishable particles at a uniform temperature. Thinking the other evening that this law, apparently of universal application, might be influencing radio programmes, I investigated those of 1YA. Newton was right. The "unclassified" programme is on the increase. "The Boys Overseas" feature, which used to be heard from 1YA at 9 a.m. on Sundays, was followed at 10.0 by "Players and Singers"; the latter mixture has now spread itself over the whole two hours from 9.0 till 11.0. A former serial feature on Thursdays at 7.30 p.m. is now superseded by a miscellaneous collection of new gramophone records known as "In Mint Condition." "Music which Appeals,"’ "Say it with Music," "Musical Highlights," "From our Sample Box"all the lovely titles that are strewn through 1YA’s columns in The Listener -cannot indefinitely mask the fact that they are but synonyms for "The Mixture as Before." Will the day come when the programme organisers will bow finally to the forces Newton warned them were beyond their control, and describe their week’s programme in one all-embracing word, "Miscellaneous"?