entropy
pronunciation
How to pronounce entropy in British English:
UK [ˈentrəpi]
How to pronounce entropy in American English:
US [ˈentrəpi]
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- Noun:
- (communication theory) a numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome
- (thermodynamics) a thermodynamic quantity representing the amount of energy in a system that is no longer available for doing mechanical work
Word Origin
- entropy
- entropy: [19] The term entropy was coined (as entropie) in 1865 by the German physicist Rudolph Clausius (1822–88), formulator of the second law of thermodynamics. It was he who developed the concept of entropy (a measure of the disorder of a system at atomic or molecular level), and he created the name for it (on the model of energy) from Greek en- ‘in’ and tropé ‘turning, transformation’ (source of English trophy and tropical). The first record of the English version of the word is from 1868.=> trophy, tropical
- entropy (n.)
- 1868, from German Entropie "measure of the disorder of a system," coined 1865 (on analogy of Energie) by German physicist Rudolph Clausius (1822-1888), in his work on the laws of thermodynamics, from Greek entropia "a turning toward," from en "in" (see en- (2)) + trope "a turning, a transformation" (see trope). The notion is supposed to be "transformation contents." Related: Entropic. It was not until 1865 that Clausius invented the word entropy as a suitable name for what he had been calling "the transformational content of the body." The new word made it possible to state the second law in the brief but portentous form: "The entropy of the universe tends toward a maximum," but Clausius did not view entropy as the basic concept for understanding that law. He preferred to express the physical meaning of the second law in terms of the concept of disgregation, another word that he coined, a concept that never became part of the accepted structure of thermodynamics. [Martin J. Klein, "The Scientific Style of Josiah Willard Gibbs," in "A Century of Nathematics in America," 1989]
Example
- 1. Not exactly entropy but it got me thinking .
- 2. But why should entropy always increase ?
- 3. Entropy is actually a measure of disorder .
- 4. But what has that to do with entropy ?
- 5. Thermodynamic entropy draws all chemical reactions down to their minimal energy level .