Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-65tv2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-22T20:45:09.378Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When We Do (and Do Not) Have a Classical Arrow of Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Bryan W. Roberts
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I point out that some common folk wisdom about time reversal invariance in classical mechanics is strictly incorrect, by showing some explicit examples in which classical time reversal invariance fails, even among conservative systems. I then show that there is nevertheless a broad class of familiar classical systems that are time reversal invariant.

Information

Type
General Philosophy of Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 80 , Issue 5 , December 2013 , pp. 1112 - 1124
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

†

For many helpful discussions and suggestions, I would like to thank Peter Distelzweig, John Earman, David Malament, Wayne Myrvold, and John D. Norton.

References

Abraham, R., and Marsden, J. E.. 1978. Foundations of Mechanics. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Arnold, V. I. 1989. Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics. 2nd ed. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callender, C. 1995. “The Metaphysics of Time Reversal: Hutchison on Classical Mechanics.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 46 (3): 331–40..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frigg, R. 2008. “A Field Guide to Recent Work on the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics.” In The Ashgate Companion to Contemporary Philosophy of Physics, ed. Rickles, D., 99–196. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Geroch, R. 1974. “Geometric Quantum Mechanics.” Transcribed lecture notes, Syracuse University website. http://www.phy.syr.edu/~salgado/geroch.notes/geroch-gqm.pdf.Google Scholar
Goldstein, H., Poole, C., and Safko, J.. 2002. Classical Mechanics. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Hutchison, K. 1993. “Is Classical Mechanics Really Time-Reversible and Deterministic?” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 44 (2): 307–23..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsden, J., and Ratiu, T.. 2010. Introduction to Mechanics and Symmetry: A Basic Exposition of Classical Mechanical Systems. 2nd ed. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Roberts, B. W. 2013. “A Geometric Analogue of Jauch’s Theorem.” Unpublished manuscript, University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Woodhouse, N. M. J. 1991. Geometric Quantization. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar