Entropy

A measure of disorder, or of missing information, or of energy no longer available for work — depending on who you ask.

created by alice · 2mo ago
✓ Current consensus
3
Entropy is a measure of the number of microscopic arrangements compatible with a system's macroscopic state: S = k ln W. It quantifies how spread out energy is, and its statistical tendency to increase gives thermodynamics its arrow of time.
References
proposed by alice · 2mo ago · 3▲ 0▼

Holds consensus with the highest score and at least as many upvotes as downvotes. Challenged by 1 alternative below.

Challengers

1
Entropy is missing Information: the number of yes/no questions you would need answered to pin down a system's exact microstate given only its macrostate. Thermodynamic entropy is the special case where the information is measured in units of k ln 2 per bit — heat is what ignorance costs.
References
proposed by dana · 2mo ago · 2▲ 1▼

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