In Über die bewegende Kraft der Wärme (1865) he introduced the term entropy, stating that the entropy of the universe tends to increase. Vacuity of Intelligent Design - The Panda's Thumb noun (thermodynamics) a thermodynamic quantity representing the amount of energy in a system that is no longer available for doing mechanical workĪ typical rebuttal is to suggest that information entropy and thermodynamic entropy are unconnected, citing the apocryphal story that Shannon picked the term entropy because “nobody understands what it means”.noun (communication theory) a numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome.
noun uncountable The tendency of a system that is left to itself to descend into chaos.įrom WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University.Originally a tongue in cheek coinage, has fallen into disuse to avoid confusion with thermodynamic entropy. noun statistics, information theory, countable A measure of the amount of information and noise present in a signal.Sometimes called the thermodynamic function.įrom Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. The entropy is regarded as measured from some standard temperature and pressure. If a small amount, h, of heat enters the body when its temperature is t in the thermodynamic scale the entropy of the body is increased by h ÷ t. noun (Thermodynamics) A certain property of a body, expressed as a measurable quantity, such that when there is no communication of heat the quantity remains constant, but when heat enters or leaves the body the quantity increases or diminishes.įrom the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English. noun As used by Tait and others, the available energy that part of the energy which is not included under the entropy in sense.noun In physics: As used by Clausius, the inventor of the word, and others, that part of the energy of a system which cannot be converted into mechanical work without communication of heat to some other body, or change of volume.noun Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.noun The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity.
noun For a closed thermodynamic system, a quantitative measure of the amount of thermal energy not available to do work.From The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.