Tenet Explained By a Physicist

Ever heard of Feynman’s theory of antimatter: that it is matter travelling backwards through time? Know our current understanding of time? What about whether entropy and time are related? Can you reverse entropy? Does reversing entropy cause time to reverse? How about the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics? Then check it this video, because you’ll need to know most of this stuff to understand Tenet! Rather than explaining the plot I explain several theories in physics the movie assumes correct and that you’ll need to know to fully understand what the hell is going on, because the movie doesn’t explain very much! #tenet #tenetexplained

Huge thanks to my Patrons:
Velvet Dunlap
Briant Dunlop
The Elephant In The Room
Rick Woodruff
Natasha Leigh

[apekplusplus]

Hi there! I really needed a video by a physicist like this! The explanations of relativity and quantum mechanics really brought me more insight into the film and physics in general. Awesome stuff here!

But I believe you have misunderstood how entropy inversion works in Tenet. This same exact confusion had been bugging me for a while, and I felt like Nolan had left a hole in the axioms he laid out for his world.

You're right that freezing a cup of water decreases the entropy locally. But in Tenet, the entropy isn't simply decreasing, it's "reversing." Otherwise they would have called it entropy reduction. What they refer to entropy inversion (my hypothesis) is both a reduction in entropy as well as backwards flow of time. You're right that entropy and time aren't the same. That's exactly what the movie assumes as well. Hence the inversion not only reverses entropy, but also the direction of time for the inverted objects. I believe they mentioned something about the inverted objects being made out of antimatter particles (which Feynman hypothesized as being time reversed in nature). This explains how time is also flowing backwards along with the entropy.

I'd like your thoughts on what I've written here. You might be able to see a flaw in my idea, or maybe you might find something insightful here!

Physics forever.

[winterborne_]

At first I didn't understand the movie at all. Then I watched it 20 more times, and then inverted myself and explained it to my past self coming out of the movie for the first time. So yeah, I understood it on the first watch.

[quartznation]

Now we need a video explaining the explaining video.

[paulstaker]

dude ur the most physicist looking dude ever

[jeswinmathew]

TENET (and most Christopher Nolan movies) will appeal to Engineers and Scientists - who love cracking or solving complex problems.

[taylorlan]

If this guy was confused about the movie, I didn't have a chance

[ds]

This video is actually quite like TENET. I didn’t understand it but loved it 😂

[marvinzaque]

Fun fact : this guy explain everything in order but in different time
0:00 evening
3:35 afternoon
9:45 morning
12:55 back to evening

he forgot some explanation and go back to the past to record again
T E N E T is real, thats explain why he's in a suit 😱

[jonathonbialas]

"dont try to understand it. Try to feel it"

[philipkempbell]

The Joker in the Dark Knight was entropy.

An agent of chaos.

[drewbrees]

This is an amazing breakdown. Loved everything about his dude. smart, great communicator, stylish. Nolan should hire him as a consultant on his next film.

[rulersonicboom]

I am a Physics nerd and I understood the concepts the movie was trying to explain, but imagining the inverted objects travelling such that their entropy was reversed was really mind boggling. Exactly how I expected a Christopher Nolan movie to be!

[paperstars]

My take on Tenet is this:
Someone in the future found out how to flip the time arrow of an object. In the present people think this is related to entropy since if they put the inverted object in a closed system, the entropy of that system decreases. Now reversing a person essentially changes the direction of time for them. From their perspectrive nothing really changes but for everyone else they disappear into the past. So from an outsiders perspective one person steps into the time arrow reversing machine, creating a second instance of that person existing parallel to the first one, only living time backwards until they step back into the machine. When time now runs normally for the person, an outsider will see 3 instances of that person, 2 traveling forwards in time, one traveling backwards. When the person now reaches the point in time where he first stepped into the machine, the other person traveling forward in time will step into the machine leaving only one instance of that person from this point on. Think of it like in a game of snake where all the snakes travel up and think of taking turns as changing the flow of time for you.

[Jake-ocvx]

No joke I just watched the film came home and typed “Tenet Explained”. This is the third video I’ve watched🤣

[mfp]

this man has to now explain the explanation now.

oh and i dont understand how somebody could dislike this video.

[Unknown-ch]

Damn i went to the movies just to relax my self and i get out with a headache and now here i am watching videos of physics like if i were in school😂😂

[WalkerOne]

I loved the movie, it made me think. I love movies that don't dumb things down to me.

[fpgamemearray]

his forehead is not overexposed, he's just thinking too hard

[DrFarisArab]

Thanks for the explanation..wish u could throw few diagrams to help illustrate wht u ment because not everyone understands what u said

[theunclear]

I think it’s too early for you to interpret inversion as the typical “time travel” ppl see in other movies. I think time is just our interpretation of change based on our memories. Without consciousness of memories, time doesn’t exist. Time fits into mathematical equations to represent change, but in reality, a million years ago and today are the same thing; the only thing different is increased in entropy. There’s only now. Changes are permanent. This is why “time travel” can’t happen bc we can’t reverse due Heisenberg uncertainty principle; time is an illusion. You obviously know more than I do, but just want to share my perspective of time. I understand your explanation of why time and entropy aren’t the same, but that’s only if we see time as something that actually exists. The movie isn’t about traveling back in time because typical understanding of time doesn’t exist in this movie, but it sees entropy as the only variable that builds the world. Tenet doesn’t reverse nonexistent time. It reverses entropy making it look like it’s reversing “time.” I love the movie btw.