What is the simplest example of entropy?

TiredThinker September 11, 2022 at 04:45 4025 views 13 comments
How can entropy be explained? It is different from randomness? Has to do with energy states or is that not required?

Comments (13)

180 Proof September 11, 2022 at 05:30 #738208
Heat.

There are countlessly many more ways to break an egg than to make an egg (which, by implication, breaks more eggs). There are many more ways to fall down than to stand up ... many more ways to fall than to fly ... many more ways to die than to be born ...

After all, signals (sounds, lights) are merely interruptions of noise (silence, darkness).

In sum: order (i.e. dissipative structure)
is a phase-state of disorder – disorder's way of generating more disorder.
TiredThinker September 12, 2022 at 03:16 #738579
Disorder means unpredictable?
TiredThinker September 12, 2022 at 03:24 #738580
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YM-uykVfq_E

This didn't quite clear things up. Time crystals are said to bounce between two positions without gaining entropy and never gaining or losing energy. So I assume energy state is a main part of definition?
180 Proof September 12, 2022 at 05:53 #738603
TiredThinker September 12, 2022 at 17:40 #738721
In what way can time run backwards and cause and effect be unclear?
180 Proof September 15, 2022 at 05:30 #739529
Reply to TiredThinker Time doesn't "run" at all ... Rather, the universe expands – dissipates – as the cosmic thermodynamic gradient (i.e. "arrow of time").
TiredThinker September 16, 2022 at 02:37 #739759
Just the movie Tenet brought up a concept that suggested that some things can happen in either a forward or backward sequence and you don't know for sure what caused what.
Agent Smith October 06, 2022 at 09:15 #745697
Entropy has been described by some as disorder but others say this is incorrect/inaccurate/only an approximation. I don't know what to believe.

Statistically/probabilistically, there are more ways a particular object can be broken than can be whole (only 1) and so, given randomness, disorder becomes the norm and order an exception. A simple example of entropy is a shattered wine glass.
Nils Loc October 06, 2022 at 19:18 #745901
Quoting Agent Smith
A simple example of entropy is a shattered wine glass.


As punishment for breaking that expensive glass, you have a few options: 1) shake the glass pieces in a box until they reassemble into the wine glass 2) melt the glass back into a wine glass shape 3) glue the wine glass back.

Which process increases the most amount of entropy (wasted/dispersed energy)?
Agent Smith October 07, 2022 at 02:43 #746033
Reply to Nils Loc Some files are missing from my database. The question doesn't make sense to me.
180 Proof October 07, 2022 at 04:22 #746050
Reply to Nils Loc Process #1.
Nils Loc October 07, 2022 at 23:43 #746369
Quoting 180 Proof
Process #1.
:ok:

Quoting Agent Smith
The question doesn't make sense to me.


Why would you glue a glass back together instead of shaking it back together?

It might be a koan if you ponder a bit over technical constraints but to shake a box for gazillions of years would take up a lot of energy which would disperse a lot of thermal radiation compared to the other options. And there ain't no recouping that thermal radiation lost to do useful work, unless you've got a lot of super sensitive nano sterling engines or thermal radiation cells, shifting electrons along a chain, driving your mechanism to shake the box. Even then a fraction of the energy is lost/unavailable to do work.

Guess it's best to get gluing, Mr. Smith. Hopefully the glass owner won't notice all the fracture lines.



Agent Smith October 08, 2022 at 02:24 #746421