The idea of entropy is confusing at first because so many words are used to describe it: disorder, uncertainty, surprise, unpredictability, amount of information and so on. GRAPHIC: A KITTERMAN/ SCIENCE The random cationic distribution of ESFMs suggests the potential for glass-like physical properties. I have asked this question of hundreds of people—laypeople, physics students, physics teachers, physics researchers —and most of them assign the larger entropy to the pool of the bottom configuration. Get one that’s been sitting still for a while at a fixed temperature—that is, one in thermal equilibrium. This historical question (like most historical questions) is complex but there’s a reasonably direct outline, Today’s science of thermodynamics was founded by Sadi Carnot in his 1824 book, The task of building upon Carnot’s foundation fell to Rudolf Clausius, who did so in a series of nine papers from 1850 to 1865. This statement was particularly damaging to me, because I read it the summer after I was introduced to the concept of entropy in my high school chemistry class. Basically, a solid is pretty ordered, especially if it is crystalline. There has been no loss of energy but some of the energy is no longer available for conversion into work. The concept of entropy was introduced into the study of thermodynamics by Rudolph Clausius in 1856 to give a quantitative basis for the second law. The velocity of the atom is equally likely to point in any direction. Entropy, denoted by the symbol ‘S’, refers to the measure of the level of disorder in a thermodynamic system. But think for a moment before spreading it over a delicious salad and eating up. Campfire, Ice melting, salt or sugar dissolving,  popcorn making, and boiling water are some entropy examples in your kitchen. If you’ve got confused with the word “entropy”, you are in the right place. The claim “entropy is analogous to disorder” fails for one additional reason: the word “disorder” is hopelessly vague. Discover the world's research . For example, you can describe the regular arrangement of the molecules in a frozen ice cube in a sentence, but to give an exact description of a gas, which has molecules buzzing around randomly, you need to know the precise location and velocity of each individual molecule, and that's a lot of information. In the sentence “We’ve run out of salad dressing, so I’ll run to the grocery store and run up our bill to buy more,” the word “run” is used three different times with three distinct meanings. Let us think about each of the results. Entropy and Disorder. If I ask for the entropy of either configuration, the answer is of course zero: Each configuration of squares is exactly specified, so there is only one configuration (. Such a state is cold, uniform and sparse with all things stopped. 7. Entropy is an easy concept to understand when thinking about everyday situations. Melt it, you get more disorder because molecules can now slide past one another. Entropy = information needed to describe the system, and systems tend to be described in less lines; Entropy = statistical mode, and the system tends to go to a microscopic state that is one of the most abundant possible states it can possess. The fact that entropy doesn’t always mean “disorder” or “uniformity”. That bottle’s in thermal equilibrium, so it’s in a state of maximum entropy. It is an extensive property of a thermodynamic system, which means its value changes depending on the amount of matter that is present. Most cases of what we perceive as "disorder" has little if anything to do with entropy, and hence little to do with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Say you have one card from a deck of playing cards. In conclusion, I hope I’ve convinced you that entropy is not a synonym for disorder or uniformity. Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The answer is that entropy doesn’t always mean “disorder” or “uniformity” or “smoothness” (in the sense of “smooth peanut butter”), and the rest of this essay explores that connection. The statistical definition of entropy fails, and it makes no sense to talk about the thermodynamic "disorder" of the room. • Entropy increase of the universe is a major concern not only to engineers but also to philosophers, theologians, economists, and environmentalists since entropy is viewed as a measure of the disorder (or “mixed-up-ness”) in the universe. Entropy. In entropy lingo, these are referred to as "microstates." The question is, which pool was larger? Entropy, Energy, and Disorder. Because to me a snowflake … (The bottom configuration is of course a member of both pools. 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