entropy
/ˈɛntɹəpi/ noun
Forms entropies
- noun (Boltzmann definition) A measure of the disorder directly proportional to the natural logarithm of the number of microstates yielding an equivalent thermodynamic macrostate.
- noun (information theory) Shannon entropy
- noun (thermodynamics, countable) A measure of the amount of energy in a physical system that cannot be used to do work.
- noun The capacity factor for thermal energy that is hidden with respect to temperature.
- noun The dispersal of energy; how much energy is spread out in a process, or how widely spread out it becomes, at a specific temperature.
- noun (statistics, information theory, countable) A measure of the amount of information and noise present in a signal.
- noun (uncountable) The tendency of a system that is left to itself to descend into chaos.
Synonyms
unavailable energy anergy bound entropy disgregation information selective information randomness S
Antonyms
Etymology
First attested in 1867, as the translation of German Entropie, coined in 1865 by Rudolph Clausius in analogy to Energie (“energy”), replacing the root of Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work”) by Ancient Greek τροπή (tropḗ, “transformation”)).
Webster’s 1913
- noun 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 . The entropy is regarded as measured from some standard temperature and pressure. Sometimes called the thermodynamic function.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “entropy”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details