why do paperclips always get stuck together despite no intervention?

Question

why do paperclips always get stuck together despite no intervention?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Almost whenever there’s a chance of order or disorder, disorder wins, because disordered states are more probable.

For example, you’re clipping a coin 5 times in a row. There are 32 possible outcomes, but only two (all 5 heads or all 5 tails) are nicely ordered. Disorder is much more likely.

Plus disorder always increases, so once something like paperclips are a mess, they tend to get even more messy over time, not less.