why does the distribution of peas in a pan of swirling water restore itself even as I spooned them out in batches (I.e. where I spooned peas out the area in water did not stay empty).
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What you have observed was actually a really interesting demonstration of entropy. When you have 2 areas of unequal energy, the energy will flow from the high side to the low side until the energy is equal.
In this case that energy is the peas being jostled around by the water. They are bouncing of of each other. There is a balance and each individual pea ends up running into another after a little bit. Now you take a big spoonful out and suddenly there’s this big gap where the peas can move freely into. So they do. Bit by bit peas get randomly jostled into the gap. Once the gap is filled then then every pea has an equal chance of bouncing off another one.
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