Everything about Entropy
Property of a thermodynamic system
Entropy is a thermodynamic state variable that quantifies the probabilistic distribution of accessible microstates in a system. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynamics, to the microscopic description of nature in statistical physics, and the principles of information theory. It has far-ranging applications in chemistry and physics, in biological systems and their relation to life, in cosmology, economics, and information systems including the transmission of information in telecommunication. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: EntropyA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: High-entropy nanoparticles: Synthesis-structure-property relationships and data-driven discoveryInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: BloodThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributionsCited 15,413 times
- Go sideways: Second law of thermodynamicsA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Laws of thermodynamicsA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Noun A measure of the disorder present in a system.
Noun A measure of the disorder directly proportional to the natural logarithm of the number of microstates yielding an equivalent thermodynamic macrostate.
Noun Shannon entropy
Noun A measure of the amount of energy in a physical system that cannot be used to do work.
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions
Nanostructured High‐Entropy Alloys with Multiple Principal Elements: Novel Alloy Design Concepts and Outcomes
A critical review of high entropy alloys and related concepts
Microstructures and properties of high-entropy alloys
Physiological time-series analysis using approximate entropy and sample entropy
Black Holes and Entropy
Entropy Balancing for Causal Effects: A Multivariate Reweighting Method to Produce Balanced Samples in Observational Studies
A fracture-resistant high-entropy alloy for cryogenic applications
🆕 Influential since 2022
High-entropy nanoparticles: Synthesis-structure-property relationships and data-driven discovery
Detecting hallucinations in large language models using semantic entropy
Clarifying the four core effects of high-entropy materials
Machine learning–enabled high-entropy alloy discovery
Strong yet ductile nanolamellar high-entropy alloys by additive manufacturing
📚 Books worth reading
BloodMichael Moorcock · 1994- 📕Entropy and Information OpticsFrancis T. S. Yu · 2000
EntropyJeremy Rifkin · 1980
Thermal physicsRalph Baierlein · 1999
Entropy and its physical meaningJ. S. Dugdale · 1996
Janus PointJulian Barbour · 2018
Thermodynamics and Statistical MechanicsPhil Attard · 1994- 📕Loss Data AnalysisHenryk Gzyl, Silvia Mayoral · 2018
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
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