Entropy (disambiguation)

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Entropy, in thermodynamics, is a property originally introduced to explain the part of the internal energy of a thermodynamic system that is unavailable as a source for useful work.

Entropy may also refer to:

Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics[edit]

  • Entropy (classical thermodynamics), thermodynamic entropy in macroscopic terms, with less emphasis on the statistical explanation
    • Entropic force. The product of temperature and the gradient of the entropy density is viewed an effective force, yielding a gradient in the energy density of a system.
    • Entropy production. Development of entropy in a thermodynamic system.
  • Entropy (statistical thermodynamics), the statistical explanation of thermodynamic entropy based on probability theory
    • Configuration entropy, the entropy change due to a change in the knowledge of the position of particles, rather than their momentum
    • Conformational entropy, the entropy change due to a change in the "configuration" of a particle (e.g. a right-handed vs. a left-handed polyatomic molecule)
  • Tsallis entropy, a generalization of Boltzmann-Gibbs entropy
  • von Neumann entropy, entropy in quantum statistical physics and quantum information science

Introductory articles[edit]

Other aspects[edit]

Information theory and mathematics[edit]

Other uses in science and technology[edit]

  • Entropy encoding, data compression strategies to produce a code length equal to the entropy of a message
  • Entropy (computing), an indicator of the number of random bits available to seed cryptography systems
  • Entropy (anesthesiology), a measure of a patient's cortical function, based on the mathematical entropy of EEG signals
  • Entropy (ecology), measures of biodiversity in the study of biological ecology, based on Shannon and Rényi entropies
  • Social entropy, a measure of the natural decay within a social system

Media[edit]

Film and television[edit]

Games[edit]

Literature[edit]

Music[edit]

Software[edit]

Internet jargon[edit]