Boast, Coast, Ghost, Host, Most, Post, Roast, Toast

My aunt and uncle are in town before heading off for a European cruise tomorrow, and they've come over for dinner. They're currently playing cards with my parents and my brother. I played a game, but six people around that table is crowded and I didn't feel like being quick-witted enough to deal with my family's penchant for insulting jokes.

I don't remember why, but as I was clearing the table after dinner, Peter brought up the second law of thermodynamics and mentioned that it was one of the most difficult things for him to conceptualize about physics that it isn't a *law*, but, rather, it's statistical. I asked him to explain, and after much bickering, I still don't think I get how the signs on vectors can be inverted (practically, not on paper). I don't get what factors are relevant/irrelevant and why. I told Peter there must be something missing from his explanation because, to me, moving a pop can back and forth across the counter (the example he kept using) isn't the same as unexploding a bomb and having things unburn.

Thinking about it, this discussion may have started out being about the croutons my dad had made for the caesar salad. I could be wrong, though.

Anyway, once Peter and I had nominally given up the topic, he mentioned that it perturbed him that I thought that the reason I didn't understand the concept was that the explanation was lacking. For some reason, he thought that it was highly unlikely that a perfect explanation of a concept like this would result in understanding the first time it was encountered. This seems weird to me. If it's understandable by someone of roughtly my level of intelligence (like Peter), then why wouldn't a perfect explanation allow me to understand it? It's not like I have to pay physics dues or something in order to understand it.

For some reason, Peter does not seem to be able to teach me things/I do not seem to be able to learn things from him. Considering that we both accel in similar subjects, it's remarkable how differently we think. Neither of us is at fault for our difficulties in discussing things like the statiscal nature of the second law of thermodynamics, but it is frustrating. And now I'm sleepy, so I'm going to go forget about this whole thing and go to bed.