Entropy | EPFL Graph Search

Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?

Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.

Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property, that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynamics, where it was first recognized, to the microscopic description of nature in statistical physics, and to the principles of information theory. It has found far-ranging applications in chemistry and physics, in biological systems and their relation to life, in cosmology, economics, sociology, weather science, climate change, and information systems including the transmission of information in telecommunication. The thermodynamic concept was referred to by Scottish scientist and engineer William Rankine in 1850 with the names thermodynamic function and heat-potential. In 1865, German physicist Rudolf Clausius, one of the leading founders of the field of thermodynamics, defined it as the quotient of an infinitesimal amount of heat to the instantaneous temperature. He initially described it as transformation-content, in German Verwandlungsinhalt, and later coined the term entropy from a Greek word for transformation. Referring to microscopic constitution and structure, in 1862, Clausius interpreted the concept as meaning disgregation. Entropy is central to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy of an isolated system left to spontaneous evolution cannot decrease with time. As a result, isolated systems evolve toward thermodynamic equilibrium, where the entropy is highest. A consequence of the second law of thermodynamics is that certain processes are irreversible. Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann explained entropy as the measure of the number of possible microscopic arrangements or states of individual atoms and molecules of a system that comply with the macroscopic condition of the system.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (37)

Related people (15)

Related units (1)

Related concepts (249)

Related courses (151)

PHYS-512: Statistical physics of computation

This course covers the statistical physics approach to computer science problems ranging from graph theory and constraint satisfaction to inference and machine learning. In particular the replica and

COM-406: Foundations of Data Science

We discuss a set of topics that are important for the understanding of modern data science but that are typically not taught in an introductory ML course. In particular we discuss fundamental ideas an

PHYS-758: Advanced Course on Quantum Communication

The aim of this doctoral course by Nicolas Sangouard is to lay the theoretical groundwork that is needed for students to understand how to take advantage of quantum effects for communication technolog

Related lectures (884)

Related MOOCs (9)

Thermodynamics

Ce cours complète le MOOC « Thermodynamique : fondements » qui vous permettra de mettre en application les concepts fondamentaux de la thermodynamique. Pour atteindre cet objectif, le Professeur J.-P

Thermodynamics

Ce cours vous apportera une compréhension des concepts fondamentaux de la thermodynamique du point de vue de la physique, de la chimie et de l’ingénierie. Il est scindé un deux MOOCs. Première partie:

Plasma Physics: Introduction

Learn the basics of plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter, and the different types of models used to describe it, including fluid and kinetic.

Temporal complexity of fMRI is reproducible and correlates with higher order cognition

Dimitri Nestor Alice Van De Ville, Amir Hossein Omidvarnia

It has been hypothesized that resting state networks (RSNs), extracted from resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI), likely display unique temporal complexity fingerprints, quanti

2021

Fluctuation-dissipation relations in the absence of detailed balance: formalism and applications to active matter

Ignacio Pagonabarraga Mora, Sara Dal Cengio

We present a comprehensive study about the relationship between the way detailed balance is broken in non-equilibrium systems and the resulting violations of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Start

IOP PUBLISHING LTD2021

, ,

A general framework to describe a vast majority of biology-inspired systems is to model them as stochastic processes in which multiple couplings are in play at the same time. Molecular motors, chemica

2020

Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of thermodynamics which convey a quantitative description using measurable macroscopic physical quantities, but may be explained in terms of microscopic constituents by statistical mechanics.

In statistical mechanics and mathematics, a Boltzmann distribution (also called Gibbs distribution) is a probability distribution or probability measure that gives the probability that a system will be in a certain state as a function of that state's energy and the temperature of the system. The distribution is expressed in the form: where pi is the probability of the system being in state i, exp is the exponential function, εi is the energy of that state, and a constant kT of the distribution is the product of the Boltzmann constant k and thermodynamic temperature T.

Quantum Information

Explores the CHSH operator, self-testing, eigenstates, and quantifying randomness in quantum systems.

Plasma State: Properties and Effects

Covers the definition and properties of plasma, including ionization and collective effects.

Entropy and Irreversibility

Explores entropy, irreversible processes, reversible cycles, and the significance of reversible thermodynamic processes.