A rip in time makes nine.(Brushing up)

From the erosion of a grain of sand off a cliff to the unbounded expansion of the Universe, Nature tends towards disorder. This tendency has a name--entropy. The phenomenon has specific scientific meaning, but in everyday popular culture, is described succinctly and wittily by the infamous Murphy's Law--What can go wrong, will go wrong.

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What's more, the entropy of two joined systems is greater than the pair's two entropies if they remain separated--as the removal of a boundary to allow mixing makes for a less organized situation.

Fan of the flames: Sadi Carnot wrote his short book, Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire, in 1824. It details how motion can be generated from the "fall" of heat from one object to another colder body. It also first outlined the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

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Murphy's Law: Correlates and functions

If left alone, things tend to go from bad to worse. * If a series of events can go wrong, they will do so in the worst possible sequence. * Nothing is as easy at it looks. * If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.