entropy

Noun

Meaning

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. 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. The entropy is regarded as measured from some standard temperature and pressure. Sometimes called the thermodynamic function.

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Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy. Václav Havel

Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased - thus do we refute entropy. Spider Robinson

Heretics are the only bitter remedy against the entropy of human thought. Yevgeny Zamyatin

Millions for nonsense, but not one cent for entropy. Alfred Bester

Progress imposes not only new possibilities for the future but new restrictions. It seems almost as if progress itself and our fight against the increase of entropy intrinsically must end in the downhill path from which we are trying to escape. Norbert Wiener

The mystery of the arrow of time comes down to this: Why were the conditions in the early universe set up in a particular way, in a configuration of low entropy that enabled all of the interesting and irreversible processes to come? Sean M. Carroll

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