Entropy is not disorder, not a measure of chaos, not a driving force. Entropy is not disorder. (Hahaha) Don’t worry, I’ll explain this to you in a simple way. At the time of the Big Bang, there were no molecules. This was because temperature was just the average kinetic energy per mode of movement. Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 Next > sayak83 Well-Known Member. A common analogy for entropy is comparing a messy room to a neat one. Let’s imagine our physical system is described by 100 digits, given by, 7607112435 2843082689 9802682604 6187032954 4947902850, 1573993961 7914882059 7238334626 4832397985 3562951413, These look like seemingly random numbers. Now as far as I know from the second law of thermodynamics it states that entropy is indeed increasing and in the end, the entropy of the universe will be maximum, so everything will evolve toward thermodynamic equilibrium (e.g same temperature everywhere in the universe). In chemistry entropy meant that calculating the change in chemical energy, the energy represented by the making and breaking of chemical bonds, was not enough to predict how much useful energy would be released during a reaction. On the contrary, she is just waking up. Look it up now! Likewise, cans of soup in the grocery store and files in a file cabinet are in order when each is resting in its proper place. The problem with this approach is knowing what is the most fundamental level of organization. Identify subsets within a base set. We see that the maximum information entropy is the same as the physicist’s definition of entropy! Entropy as disorder: Scientific develop-ment I hope I’ve convinced you that entropy is not always disor - der, but this invites the question: Why do so many scientists claim that entropy and disorder are intimately connected? Heat flowed from a hot body to a cold body as kinetic energy was transferred through molecular collisions occurring at the boundary between the two bodies and further distributed throughout the body as molecules collided with each other within the body. Remove an ice cube from your freezer, place it in a saucepan, and heat it. For example, melting a block of ice means taking a highly structured and orderly system of water molecules and converting it into a disorderly liquid in which molecules have no fixed positions. I am also pleased to have found that I am not the only one trying to dispel the notion that entropy is disorder. The temperature and entropy of a system is only well defined for systems that are homogeneous and in thermal equilibrium. However, the truth is all of the above mentioned 3 perspectives are correct given the appropriate context. To get a better understanding, we need to make a connection to statistics. From the “invisible force” to the “harbinger of chaos,” you may have heard quite a few sensational phrases describing entropy. If each pocket, on average, could hold the same amount of kinetic energy, then the more pockets a system had, the more total kinetic energy the system contained. One of the difficulties was knowing how much heat energy was stored in the hot reservoir. not … In other words, order can be dynamic or static. The answer is probably yes, but not because the pieces seem to be arranged in a more chaotic way. A machine with parts not behaving as they should is a machine that is out of order. A system in "perfect order" was one in which all the molecules were locked in perfect array without any freedom of movement whatsoever. The significance of entropy in the study of heat engines and chemical reactions is that, for a given temperature, a system can hold only a certain amount of heat energy - no more and no less - depending on the entropy of the system. The cube changes from pure ice, This notion was initially postulated by Ludwig Boltzmann in the 1800s. In thermodynamics, the study of heat, this constraint … So if the only relevant information is that there are 100 digits, and the precise digits are irrelevant, the entropy would simply be. The difficulties of life do not occur because the planets are misaligned or because some cosmic force is conspiring against you. Movement on the molecular level is still governed by Newtonian mechanics. There are more ways things can go wrong than right. Entropy is the measurement of disorder of the system. There are a lot of analogies used for entropy: disorder, uncertainty, surprise, unpredictability, amount of information and so on. Joined: May 7, 2012 Messages: 8,885 Ratings: +8,397 Religion: Pluralist Hindu. If I tell you that our system is given exactly by the digits of pi, there would only be one possible state that can describe this system, and the entropy will be 0! 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