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What Is Entropy? – John Baez

3 点作者 dwlg008 个月前

1 comment

illuminant8 个月前
Entropy is the existential phenomenon by which potential (any kind: heat, electromagnetic, and informational&#x2F;structural) distributes over negative potential.<p>Math and physics geeks will turn beat red and say that entropy is a &quot;scalar value [in their equations] of the distribution of delta probability.&quot; This, such as inverse square or whatever appropriate for the relevant manifold surface area (check out Penrose&#x27;s Road to Reality for an excellent tutorial of manifold distributions.)<p>Conventional students will say &quot;entropy is the waste energy that cannot be used or reclaimed&quot; which sounds good in class yet doesn&#x27;t fit in reality. Ambient heat is the entropy of whatever generated it, and we all enjoy ambient heat.<p>Everyone else is stuck in a mystical uncertainty (which is a laugh for uncertainty is a synonym for entropy.)<p>Where is it? Probably any location within the area of distribution.<p>What is it? Probably whatever there is, in statistical proportion.<p>In casual terms, any time anyone mentions &quot;uncertainty&quot; they&#x27;re talking about the entropic distribution of potentials.<p>Thermal equilibrium is merely the most primitive universal example (everything is moving from more potential to less, and heat is the final exhaust of all working processes.<p>Entropy is the distribution of potential over negative potential, in every valid usage.<p>The mistake Shannon made in his monumental instigation of this very subject, that equation that expresses the electron distribution upon the valence of an atom, didn&#x27;t account for the valence changing energy states. This giving modern information theory the erroneous conclusion that entropy is the &quot;available states in a system&quot; when in fact entropic measure is of all possible states, even those not fitting the model (a human construction.)<p>Other than all of this, the book looks quite interesting!