What are your thoughts so far?Jaccobtw said:Homework Statement:: How is entropy a measure of disorder?
Relevant Equations:: S = k ln W
Let's say you have a very dirty small room room and a giant clean library (lots of organized books) and let's say these occupy the same number of microstates. The entropy according to this equation is the same for the library and the room. But one is more ordered than the other one. How does it make sense that entropy is a measure of disorder?? I hope this question makes sense.
Don't confuse total entropy with entropy density.Jaccobtw said:Homework Statement:: How is entropy a measure of disorder?
Relevant Equations:: S = k ln W
Let's say you have a very dirty small room room and a giant clean library (lots of organized books) and let's say these occupy the same number of microstates. The entropy according to this equation is the same for the library and the room. But one is more ordered than the other one. How does it make sense that entropy is a measure of disorder?? I hope this question makes sense.
It's better to think of entropy as the spreading of energy.Jaccobtw said:Homework Statement:: How is entropy a measure of disorder?
Doesn’t life have low entropy?Bystander said:"Order = tidy" is not equivalent to "order = low entropy;" this inevitably comes up/arises in "life = order" arguments, and cannot be further from the actual facts of the matter.
Are you saying the library has lower entropy density than the room?haruspex said:Don't confuse total entropy with entropy density.
Yes. The library has fewer microstates per unit volume.Jaccobtw said:Are you saying the library has lower entropy density than the room?
No.Jaccobtw said:Doesn’t life have low entropy?
Entropy is a measure of the amount of disorder or randomness in a system. It is a concept used in thermodynamics to describe the tendency of a system to move towards a state of equilibrium or maximum disorder.
Entropy and order are inversely related. As the amount of disorder in a system increases, the entropy also increases. This means that a highly ordered system has low entropy, while a highly disordered system has high entropy.
Yes, entropy can be measured using mathematical equations. In thermodynamics, the change in entropy of a system is calculated by taking into account the heat flow and temperature of the system.
Entropy is a fundamental concept in many branches of science, including physics, chemistry, and biology. It helps to explain the behavior of systems and the direction of natural processes, such as the flow of heat and the progression of chemical reactions.
In a closed system, entropy will always increase over time. This is known as the second law of thermodynamics. However, in an open system, such as the Earth, entropy can decrease locally as long as it is balanced by an increase in entropy elsewhere.