I would just like to comment on a factual error in the primary post. Unless the person was referring to China in both cases, he is wrong. According to military authorities, unlike the Russian-American aerial standoffs during which, the closest either countries' fighter planes got to a spy plane was 400 ft, except during the occasional few instances where Russian pilots would surprise American spy planes by flying underneath the plane, shooting upwards so that the fighter would be directly in front of the huge spy plane so that the jetwash from the Russian fighter would cause the spy plane to experience turbulance (Like the accident that caused Maverick and Goose to lose control, only the spy plane is much larger and sturdier.). The Chinese on the other hand had no respect for US spy planes. Often they would approach and be closer than 100 ft. There are even several instances where the Chinese fighter pilots were inside of 30 ft. These are airplanes traveling at high speeds. Any kind of loss of control when two planes are that close can cause disaster. Saying that the US is wrong is like citing fault to an aircraft carrier for running into a fishing boat. The fishing boat is much more maneuverable than the aircraft carrier. It can move out of the way much easier, just like the fighter pilot could move out of the way much easier than a large spy plane. What happened can be boiled down to a dispute over Right-of-way. And in no way did a fighter plane have right-of-way over a large spy plane. But the media does have a strangle-hold on what Americans believe these days, so ignorance can most likely be forgiven in this case, so long as people realize that this was, in fact, China's fault. They needed an excuse to jump at America, and here is there chance to gain some sympathy from the ignorant of the world.
I've taken enough physics to wonder how this plays in with the whole Entropy Theory about the Universe's future. The second law of thermodynamics says that in a closed system, the entropy of that system will always increase. The Universe is a closed system (to the best of my knowledge). How is it that these two ideas do not contradict?
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I would just like to comment on a factual error in the primary post. Unless the person was referring to China in both cases, he is wrong. According to military authorities, unlike the Russian-American aerial standoffs during which, the closest either countries' fighter planes got to a spy plane was 400 ft, except during the occasional few instances where Russian pilots would surprise American spy planes by flying underneath the plane, shooting upwards so that the fighter would be directly in front of the huge spy plane so that the jetwash from the Russian fighter would cause the spy plane to experience turbulance (Like the accident that caused Maverick and Goose to lose control, only the spy plane is much larger and sturdier.). The Chinese on the other hand had no respect for US spy planes. Often they would approach and be closer than 100 ft. There are even several instances where the Chinese fighter pilots were inside of 30 ft. These are airplanes traveling at high speeds. Any kind of loss of control when two planes are that close can cause disaster. Saying that the US is wrong is like citing fault to an aircraft carrier for running into a fishing boat. The fishing boat is much more maneuverable than the aircraft carrier. It can move out of the way much easier, just like the fighter pilot could move out of the way much easier than a large spy plane. What happened can be boiled down to a dispute over Right-of-way. And in no way did a fighter plane have right-of-way over a large spy plane. But the media does have a strangle-hold on what Americans believe these days, so ignorance can most likely be forgiven in this case, so long as people realize that this was, in fact, China's fault. They needed an excuse to jump at America, and here is there chance to gain some sympathy from the ignorant of the world.
I've taken enough physics to wonder how this plays in with the whole Entropy Theory about the Universe's future. The second law of thermodynamics says that in a closed system, the entropy of that system will always increase. The Universe is a closed system (to the best of my knowledge). How is it that these two ideas do not contradict?