Final answer:
The second law of thermodynamics implies that the entropy of the universe is increasing, leading to an increase in disorder over time. Entropy, which measures disorder and the availability of energy for work, tends to increase in spontaneous processes, indicating a natural trend towards disorder.
Step-by-step explanation:
The second law of thermodynamics leads us to conclude that disorder in the universe is increasing with the passage of time. The concept of entropy is key to understanding this law. Entropy can be thought of as a measure of disorder or the unavailability of energy to do work. As the second law states, the total entropy of a system increases or remains constant; it never decreases in any spontaneous process. This means that with the passage of time, universal disorder increases, and the availability of energy to do meaningful work decreases.
Heat energy spontaneously transfers from hotter to colder objects, contributing to the increase in entropy. The interesting point about entropy is that it's more about the probability of states. There are simply many more disordered states available to a system than ordered ones, making disorder far more likely as time progresses. Over very long timescales, this leads to a universe where potential energy sources are depleted, and differences in temperature equalize, leading to a state where no work can be done.