Log in or Sign up
  1. entropy love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. For a closed thermodynamic system, a quantitative measure of the amount of thermal energy not available to do work.
  2. n. A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system.
  3. n. A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message.
  4. n. The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity.
  5. n. Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In physics: As used by Clausius, the inventor of the word, and others, that part of the energy of a system which cannot be converted into mechanical work without communication of heat to some other body, or change of volume.
  2. n. As used by Tait and others, the available energy; that part of the energy which is not included under the entropy in sense .

Wiktionary

  1. n. statistics, information theory, countable A measure of the amount of information and noise present in a signal. Originally a tongue in cheek coinage, has fallen into disuse to avoid confusion with thermodynamic entropy.
  2. n. uncountable The tendency of a system that is left to itself to descend into chaos.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Thermodynamics) A certain property of a body, expressed as a measurable quantity, such that when there is no communication of heat the quantity remains constant, but when heat enters or leaves the body the quantity increases or diminishes. If a small amount, h, of heat enters the body when its temperature is t in the thermodynamic scale the entropy of the body is increased by h ÷ t. The entropy is regarded as measured from some standard temperature and pressure. Sometimes called the thermodynamic function.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. (communication theory) a numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome
  2. n. (thermodynamics) a thermodynamic quantity representing the amount of energy in a system that is no longer available for doing mechanical work

Etymologies

  1. First attested in 1868. From German Entropie, coined in 1865 by Rudolph Clausius, from Ancient Greek ἐντροπία (entropia, "a turning towards"), from ἐν (en, "in") + τροπή (tropē, "a turning"). (Wiktionary)
  2. German Entropie : Greek en-, in; + Greek tropē, transformation. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “A typical rebuttal is to suggest that information entropy and thermodynamic entropy are unconnected, citing the apocryphal story that Shannon picked the term entropy because “nobody understands what it means”.”

    Vacuity of Intelligent Design - The Panda's Thumb

  • “In Über die bewegende Kraft der Wärme (1865) he introduced the term entropy, stating that the entropy of the universe tends to increase.”

    4. Science and Learning

  • “Rudolf J.E. Clausius also introduced (1850) a quantitative measure of irreversibility which he termed entropy, and he posited the so-called second law of thermodynamics by which for a closed physical system the total entropy of the system cannot decrease in time but only increase or at most remain constant.”

    SYMMETRY AND ASYMMETRY

  • “Fork in the Road, is entirely about his electric car, which he calls the entropy said: "This video made me smile and be happy, it's great to see people and robots getting along! ..." idontlikewords said: "I think what the author is getting at by bringing up the difference between an advertising medium an ...”

    Boing Boing

  • “It didn’t help that von Neuman and Shannon started using the term entropy for a formula in information theory that looked a lot like Boltzmann’s expression for entropy.”

    Evidence that the Second Law of Thermodynamics is wrong? - The Panda's Thumb

  • “Just as entropy is only a relative background effect, it is also not all that there is to reality.”

    Matthew Yglesias » Universalism and Particularism in Neoconservatism

  • “Social entropy is a similar concept applied to people - we have a tendency towards anarchy unless society applies extensive energy (laws, police, Dick Cheney, etc.) to rein us in.”

    entropic policy

  • “When it reaches that state, maximum entropy is achieved.”

    Galactic Gentle | SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles

  • “With the advent of quantum mechanics in the 1920s (see Section 3.4), Eyring developed his transition-state theory in 1935 and this showed that the activation entropy is also important.”

    The Nobel Prize in Chemistry: The Development of Modern Chemistry

  • “This entropy is useful for all your random number needs.”

    Boing Boing

Show 10 more examples...

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. information measure

same context (11)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. coercivity
  2. resistivity
  1. enthalpy
  2. magnetization
  1. viscosity
  2. throughput
  1. hyperfunction
  2. payout
  1. torque
  2. solubility
  1. rainfall

reverse dictionary (16)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. conformational entropy
  2. entropy
  3. isentropic
  1. isentropic lines
  2. heat weight
  3. Claus
  1. free energy
  2. Maxwell's demon
  3. observable
  1. third law of thermodynamics
  2. adiabatic
  3. second law of thermodynamics
  1. S
  2. disgregation
  3. heat-weight
  1. theta

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. vcccvcv

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘entropy’.

More lists containing ‘entropy’

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • jellyroll Inert uniformity. Sounds like the great silent majority in this and many countries you care to name Aug 12, 2010

  • john What does it mean for energy to become untranslated?

    This word always reminds me of Thomas Pynchon. Nov 26, 2008

  • jennasue i once heard this used to describe a very personal state in which energy has lost its way, becomes stuck and untranslated. Nov 26, 2008

  • thebighenry The Second Law of Thermodynamics specifies that entropy, the measure of randomness in a closed physical system, increases with time. Entropy is that physical phenomenon responsible for the inexorable expansion of the universe toward a state of complete dissipation of useful, creative if you will it, energy. This, crucially, does not obviate the possibility of temporary localized reductions in entropy, however. May 23, 2008

  • bilby Great quote. Apr 13, 2008

  • frindley "What's happening to your tea is happening to everything everywhere. The sun and the stars. It'll take a while but we're all going to end up at room temperature."
    (Tom Stoppard, Arcadia) Apr 12, 2008

  • sonofgroucho This is also a term used in thermodynamics. Nov 11, 2007

  • thinkcharlene Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Season 6, Episode 3 - "Obscene" Mar 4, 2007

Tweets

Looking for tweets for entropy.

‘entropy’ has been looked up 4659 times, loved by 19 people, added to 107 lists, commented on 8 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.