Section: STEM · PhysicsDifficulty: Medium
Entropy
USUK
A measure of disorder or randomness in a system.
Definition
Entropy is a thermodynamic quantity representing the degree of disorder or randomness within a system. According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the total entropy of an isolated system never decreases over time; it tends to increase, driving systems toward equilibrium. Entropy has profound implications in information theory, biology, and cosmology.
Example
“When an ice cube melts in a glass of warm water, entropy increases as the orderly crystalline structure of ice breaks down into randomly moving liquid water molecules.”
Synonyms
- disorder measure
- thermodynamic entropy
- information entropy
Antonyms / Opposites
- order
- low entropy
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Related Terms
- Thermodynamics
- Second Law of Thermodynamics
- Gibbs Free Energy
- Heat Transfer