Entropic Time (Backwards Billy Joel Parody) by A Capella Science

May 7, 2016 2:18 PM

Tim Blais, aka A Capella Science [of Rolling in the Higgs and Bohemian Gravity] sings in reverse about the physics of "Entropic Time." "Stars explode and leaves turn brown and fall /That's thermodynamics' second Law /But from a deep view /That doesn't need to be true /Time symmetry precludes entropic time."

The doobly-doo contains many more links for love and edification, including lryics, a making of video (which explains learning to sing his own lyrics backward), and a presentation by Sean Carroll about the very subject.
And here is a karaoke version of "For the Longest Time" by Billy Joel.

posted by McLir (11 comments total)

That there justifies the internet. Thanks for posting.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:43 PM on May 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

.tnellecxE
posted by parki at 2:56 PM on May 7, 2016 [3 favorites]

WOW
posted by Bringer Tom at 4:08 PM on May 7, 2016

That kind of blew my mind
posted by Roger Dodger at 5:58 PM on May 7, 2016

That lip-sync is pretty impressive, and SCIENCE!. It reminded me of Drop, by The Pharcyde, where they learned the lyrics phonetically, backwards.
posted by Gorgik at 6:33 PM on May 7, 2016

Beautiful, thanks for posting. Going to show that to my physics class.
posted by mwalimu at 6:46 PM on May 7, 2016

The making-of video implies that he not only lip-synced, but actually SANG the song backward.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:40 PM on May 7, 2016

Also, baby universes are so cute.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:42 PM on May 7, 2016

He was singing backwards during filming but he used the normal recording for the soundtrack.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:49 PM on May 7, 2016

OK I thought it sounded incredibly natural. I guess he had to actually sing in the backward takes to get the verisimilitude.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:55 PM on May 7, 2016

I cannot unwatch this.
posted by lipsum at 6:40 AM on May 11, 2016 [1 favorite]