The gradient reducing nature of self-organizing systems is dramatically demonstrated by a simple experimental device sold as a toy in a nationwide scientific catalog (Edmunds). Their "Tornado in a Bottle" (not to be confused with "fusion in a bottle"), consists of a simple plastic orifice that allows the connection of two 1.5 liter plastic soda bottles end to end. The bottles are connected and set on a level surface to drain with the upper bottle filled with water and the lower bottle empty. When set vertical, a thirty centimeter gradient of water exists. Due to the orifice configuration, the bottle drains slowly requiring approximately six minutes to empty the upper bottle (i.e. to reduce the gradient in the system). The experiment is then repeated with the bottles being given a slight rotational perturbation. A vortex forms, driven by the gravitational gradient within the system, and drains the upper bottle in approximately 11 seconds. The "tornado", a highly organized structure, has the ability to dissipate the gradient much faster thus bringing the system to its local equilibrium more quickly! Here again is a manifestation of the restated second law, a macroscopic highly organized structure of 10²³ molecules acting coherently to dissipate a gradient. The production of the highly organized system, the tornado, leads to more effective dissipation of the larger driving gradient, the gravitational differences in water levels between the bottles. As in the Bénard convection experiments, organized structures reduce gradients more quickly than random linear processes. The graph shows that water drains more quickly (gradient dissipation rate) as the initial height of water (gradient) increases. The organized structure (the tornado) dissipates more quickly as the gradient increases.

© James Kay, 1994.