Definition of entropy?

Question

Hello. I'm a political scientist. I'm looking for an "easy" definition of entropy, in order to investigate it´s application in political matters, something similiar to"entropy for dummies". Thanks in advance!

I understand the problems of misused concepts in social sciences borrowed from other areas, like physics. It requires a process, a cautious reasoning. At the end, the meaning of that concept in a specific social science could be different, but preserve some common aspects of the original. This is not rare. Entropy has also different meanings in physics, computer science. But I am still curious about the meaning of entropy in physics, could you help me?

Answer 1

"Entropy" is one of the most misused concepts borrowed from physics, and I'm afraid it's impossible now to stop people from using it to mean whatever they want it to mean to serve their purposes. The idea that things "inevitably progress towards greater disorder" is an old idea going back to the ancient Greeks and earlier, so the word "entropy" is just a fancy, "mathematically smart" way of saying the same thing, even though it really doesn't. Almost everybody uses the word "entropy", and almost nobody really understands it. The worst thing about this gross misapplication of the word is that it blinds people to the reality that a lot of things are NOT "inevitably progressing towards greater disorder", and that even in closed systems of rising entropy, spontaneous complexity can indeed arise, as it does every day around us, if we understand what to look for.

But, hey, you're going to use this word for political purposes, right?

Addendum: In response to the Asker's request for more details, check out Dr. R's good answer. Let's say that there's 52! ways of arranging cards in a deck of cards. There's 104! ways of arranging cards in 2 decks of cards, which is vastly greater than twice 52!. Entropy is a measure of the number of ways, so that should 2 decks of cards be "intermingled", entropy would increase far above 2 x 52!

Answer 2

Entropy For Dummies

Answer 3

The formal definition of entropy is the natural log of the number of quantum states consistent with a system's macroscopic description.

For example, if you have a system of 3 atoms, each of which is in either a state of energy E or energy 0, and the macroscopic description states that the total energy is 2E, then the entropy is ln(3), since there are 3 ways for that to occurs.

The nice thing about quantum mechanics is that the number of accessible states of a finite system is always finite. This is required for the definition is meaningful. In poly sci, you'd have to discretize the number of states under consideration. For, example, you could consider the "state" of a voter to be characterized by his filled ballot.

Answer 4

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Change of S = Q/T I think that thats an empirical observation. i.e it was not derived. But, there is a mathematical treatement to it called the clausis theorem i believe. That deffinition is only valid for reversible processess. for everyday processes entropy change in entropy is always greater than Q/T Its used to help define a state of a thermoydynamic system. It is one of the properties....just like temperature is one of the properties. Go into a physics meaning of what it is beyond me...i know a littel bit about it but i am gnerally just hand waving

Answer 5

Let's see... Entropy is the measure of disorder of a physical system.
Hope this helps something...

Answer 6

1. For a closed thermodynamic system, a quantitative measure of the amount of thermal energy not available to do work.
2. A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system.
3. A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message.
4. The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity.
5. Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.

Answer 7

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RE:
Definition of entropy?
Hello. I'm a political scientist. I'm looking for an "easy" definition of entropy, in order to investigate it´s application in political matters, something similiar to"entropy for dummies". Thanks in advance!

Answer 8

The simplist definition would be "Those things left to themselves will, over time, disperse". It takes energy to keep things organized.

Answer 9

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/entropy.html