I enjoyed this article. As several commenters have suggested, it seems not just counterintuitive but actually non-physical to say that the warm water has become colder just because I know more about it. The subjective nature of entropy that this seems to imply is absurd. As has been pointed out, a stationary thermometer in the water will show the same reading after my visit from Saint LaPlace as it did before.
I think the problem is resolved if we consider our system boundary to include not just the water, but the observer as well. The entropy of the water has not changed because I have more information, but the total entropy of the... (read more)
I enjoyed this article. As several commenters have suggested, it seems not just counterintuitive but actually non-physical to say that the warm water has become colder just because I know more about it. The subjective nature of entropy that this seems to imply is absurd. As has been pointed out, a stationary thermometer in the water will show the same reading after my visit from Saint LaPlace as it did before.
I think the problem is resolved if we consider our system boundary to include not just the water, but the observer as well. The entropy of the water has not changed because I have more information, but the total entropy of the... (read more)