@stux

Clearly, when it's tight, any vibration of the nut will oscillate between a tighter and looser position, and the looser position will win -- it's clearly higher entropy. It'll get looser each cycle.

But once it gets "fully loose" on the threads, it's pretty hard to believe the nut can "know" the macroscopic fact that it is "heading for freedom".

I feel like this is one of those problems in which the "obvious answer", though correct, is not quite as obvious as it seems.

@TerryHancock @stux It's because the up and down movement of the nut is not symmetric. It's like shaking a box of cereals: the big stuff rises because big and small pieces don't move the same way up and down.