I know the definition of entropy but I don't understand it. What is entropy in your own words?
460836
Entropy is a measurement of probability.  Say that there's two chambers of pink gas connected by some tubing.  The pink gas is free to move around between the two chambers.  \nIs it possible that every particle of gas will rest neatly in the first chamber?  Yes.  Is it at all probable?  No way.  The chances of that happening are nearly nothing.  That's because of entropy.  Entropy is disorder, and everything likes to go to higher disorder.
771004
steam has the most entropy because the water molecules in steam have almost completely overcome any intermolecular forces keeping them together, allowing them to bounce around chaotically.\nsnow and ice have the least entropy since they are solids and the water molecules are arranged into neat patterns.\nliquid water is in the middle since its molecules can slide around each other, but they aren't completely free from intermolecular forces.
1185549
The first law of thermodynamics says that the total quantity of energy in the universe remains constant. This is the principle of the conservation of energy. The second law of thermodynamics states that the quality of this energy is degraded irreversibly. This is the principle of the degradation of energy.
698845
First of all, transliterate this into coherent English.\n\nSecond of all, when you find the theory of entropy in those holy books, you let me know.
293701
The description of entropy as the tendency to descend into chaos is incorrect. Entropy actually describes the amount of usuable energy in a material. It has a statistical interpretation, but even that is closer to saying that the state of a system gets more probable over time.\n\nNext, when working with entropy, it's important to realize that it is only required to increase in a closed system, that is, one that has *no* heat or energy exchange with anything else. For a tree, there is a lot of energy coming in through sunlight. And, in fact, it is the energy of sunlight that drives the local decrease in entropy.\n\nThere is another quantity, called the Gibbs free energy, that is a combination of entropy, temperature, and the energy of a reaction that is more appropriate for non-closed systems. It is described by H-TS, where H is the energy of the reaction, T is the temperature, and S is the entropy. The Gibbs free energy is what must decreasein systems that are not closed (and under constant pressure).
1151554
Chaos theory describes nonlinear dynamic systems that under certain conditions exhibit a phenomenon known as: chaos. The idea is that even having known the initial state, there is a certain determination of randomness to be made.\n\n Entropy, as it could relate to Chaos Theory would be the measurement of the quantity of information in a given random variable. However, the law of entropy - describes the point where the amount of free energy available is zero. Which still relates in a broad sense.\n\n That is about as nutshell as I can get it without oversimplifying it.
240924
Entropy always increases within a closed system.  For example, if you start with an isolated room full of set mouse traps and ping pong balls, the content of the room is highly organized.  If at the instant of observation there is also an airborne ping pong ball the organization will soon deteriorate with traps snapping shut and ping pong balls flying everywhere.  Entropy, the degree of disorganization, has increased during the event.  It takes external energy to reset the traps and pin pong balls, and although that may re-lower the entropy of the room, the boundary of the system in now enlarged to include the worker who resets the room and the entropy of the worker's body is increasing while burning up fuel (food) which must be replaced from time to time (meals).  In your problem, you must analyze what is happening in your chosen system boundary and whether at some point you are enlarging your system boundary.  If you discover some way to violate the 2nd Law, you will not go to jail but will get very rich.  No one has done it yet.  Good luck.
1021038
The definition of the heat of a substance is based on the average kinetic energy of it's particles.\n\nEssentialy, heat *is* average kinetic energy.
205157
With advances in relativity, quantum mechanics and microscopy, time is actually currently defined as measuring the number of vibrations of a cesium atom.\n\nSince this motion slows down as you approach the speed of light, it could be said that we are measuring how much matter/energy has slowed down from the speed of light since the big bang...\n\nSince entropy is defined as, "the amount of energy that cannot be used to do work," measuring how long it has been since the big bang is not QUITE the same as measuring the amount of energy that cannot be used to do work.\n\nFor example, entropy itself has changes as our technology has progressed - we are now able to utilize a larger percentage of wind and solar energy than ever before in history, which necessarily means that the rate that entropy is increasing has slowed.  There is no reason to believe this will not be the case in other areas, such as nuclear fusion (which powers stars) or even tapping the vast vaccuum energy that is omniprescent throughout space.\n\n:)
869772
The basic trend in nature for anything to move from a state of order to one of disorder (chaos) over time.  Think of dropping a glass of water.  It breaks into many pieces and goes flying everywhere.  Now if you picked up all of the pieces and dropped them, they would not reform into a complete glass.  This is an example of entropy.
404781
Atoms/elements that are higher atomic number on the periodic table are lower in entropy because they contain more bonded protons, neutrons, and electrons.  \n\nThus F2 has more entropy than Cl2, and so on.
850622
A black hole has entropy proportional to the size of its event horizon:\n\nS = kA/4l^2\n\nk = Boltzman constant, A = area, l = PLank length\n\nThis is also the maximum amount of entropy that can be contained in a volume bounded by area A, so a black hole has the most entropy it is possible for anythingto have.
32631
There are actually four laws:\n\nZeroth Law: "If two thermodynamic systems A and B are in thermal equilibrium, and B and C are also in thermal equilibrium, then A and C are in thermal equilibrium."\n\nFirst Law: "The increase in the internal energy of a system is equal to the amount of energy added to the system by heating, minus the amount lost in the form of work done by the system on its surroundings."\n\nSecond Law: "The total entropy of any isolated thermodynamic system tends to increase over time, approaching a maximum value."\n\nThird Law: "As a system approaches absolute zero of temperature all processes cease and the entropy of the system approaches a minimum value or zero for the case of a perfect crystalline substance."
408745
The entire world moves toward entropy, it's not in a state of entropy.  There are small scale effects that counteract entropy because of randomness and because the sun feeds us with energy constantly.\n\nWhen a snowflake forms, that is against entropy (it is becoming more "organized").  When a living thing grows up, that is against entropy.
280701
The Second Law merely describes the observed data.  The lower entropy in the past is what is being described by the Second Law.\n\nScience cannot answer why things are as they are, but only can describe them and project into the future, based on the assumption that the future will be like the past.
735749
entropy. it never decreases.
1116331
The third law of thermodynamics states that \n\nany system left on its own will advance to a state that is worse and more confused than the one it started at.