Entropy is a property of a probability distribution, including the ones that we use in physics to describe ensembles of many particles.įor a discrete probability distribution where the i th probability is p i, the entropy of the distribution is simply the expectation value of -ln(p i). Your first and third bullet points are equivalent to each other, and they're both good ways to describe entropy in physics.īut really entropy is even a more general quantity than the way it's used in physics. This is the process by which "heat spreads out". It's the second law of thermodynamics which says that entropy tends to increase. But entropy is not a process, it's a quantity. Unfortunately in colloquial language, people get the idea that this is what entropy is. Carl Sagan, Cosmosĭefinitely not this, there are a number of problems with this. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.
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