Entropy

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I know that there are a couple of people here that know a lot about physics and the like and I was wondering whether you could explain the principle of entropy to me. Please keep it simple. I'm wondring because there is a sentence in in the novel I'm analysing that says "Is this the entropy written within our nature?" and although I intuitively understand what it means, I wanted to know more precisely.

 

Yes, that's true, Tal. In the context of this particular novel, it refers to the fact that we (mankind) consume ourselves...that what we need to survive will also be the doom of us etc... At least in my opinion.

But it's really the physics thing I'm interested in.

 

Yeah, I know.

That's why I thought perhaps people here could tell me in a simpler way. Pretty please?

 

Another example would be something like:

If you have a closed container filled with oxygen at 0 degrees (C), it has low-entropy because they gas molecules aren't moving really quickly and bouncing into each other and the walls of the container crazily. If you heat the container up to 100 degrees (C), it will have high-entropy because the particles are very chaotically slamming into each other and the walls. (Note, the temperatures are not very accurate, just examples)

 

Here are some down-to-earth examples:

Have you ever tried sorting several loops of cables, extension cords, and ropes into a small drawer? You could wind them up neatly, and stack them in an orderly fashion, but somehow they always seem to tangle up after several uses. Finally, when you go to grab one a few months later, you get pissed and decide to take them all out and separate each one laboriously. As a physics prof once told me, wires and cables always find a way to become maximally entangled. That's entropy - a tendency for things to become disordered.

A thermodynamics prof once demonstrated this to us. Consider a chain of paper clips, linked to each other and stretched in a straight line. That is a state of low entropy because each paper clip is ordered one after another. Then he adds energy to the system by simply tapping the surface on which the clips laid. The result was, the clips started to curl in upon itself. As he bangs the table harder, the clips even overlap and turn into a cluster of clips. The paper clips have re-positioned into a state of higher entropy since they are jumbled together. Hence the system tends towards a state with higher entropy.

 

Here is a little bit easy to read.

 

Yeah, that was crystal clear mate that was

 

I think Blog did a WONDERFUL job with two clear, easy-to-apply-to-everyday-life examples.

 

Thank you all. I'm just a little bit confused about the role of energy in the process...

 

Well if you think back to Montresor's ice and boiling water example, the ice is highly structured (the molecules are arranged in uniform crystals) and has a low amount of energy (ie it has low entropy). The boiling water and steam however are very unstructured, the molecules are very disorganized and are jumping around everywhere; it has high energy and entropy. Since the system:
a) cannot loose or gain any energy (1st law of thermodynamics)
b) tend to become more disorganised/chaotic (2nd law of thermodynamics)
the ice and the boiling water will mix together and instead of having 1/2 of the cup being filled with a very cold, low energy substance (ice) and the other 1/2 with a very hot, high energy substance (boiling water/steam), you end up with a cup full of luke warm water with no one half being hotter or cooler than another.

Another example would be that a mug of hot coffee will not stay in its high energy (hot state) instead it will warm the room until the coffee and the room become the same energy. The system moves from more organized distinct hot(high energy)/cold(low energy) areas to less organized uniform temperature systems.

I can't remember which game it was, but I once found a sword called entropy - I guess the reason behind its name is that it causes highly structured, low entropy beings to become less structured (by ripping them to shreds), and kind of evens out the entropy of the room the being is in.

I had a (creationist)teacher that once said that this was contradictory with evolution - ie evolution involves the less structured organisms becoming more structured and complex, while the laws of entropy and thermodynamics state that things should tend towards disorder.

 

Hello, my name is Entropy.

 

Gah I hate scientific definitions like the one Kitrax quoted. That means so little to me. Way to make fun of it

Haerdalis had a short sword called Entropy, but it only poisons or drains two dexterity or something.

About the mug of coffee in a room, I don't think that's a contradiction. If you think of the mug by itself, then it's not a closed system since it's losing energy, so that's ok. If you think of the mug and the room, then heating the room transfers energy to the air particles, causing them to have more entropy. So even though the mug is losing entropy, the room gains more, so the entire system increases in entropy. That's how I would explain it... but don't ask me to do the math!

 

Ah - sorry I didn't mean for the mug to be a contradiction, I'll reorganize my paragraphs a bit (it was all a bit randomly pieced together when I wrote it). What I was mainly getting at was that, while the system doesn't loose any energy, it gets reorganized in an overall less organized way.