Discussion History ActorAllusion / LiveActionTV

Physicist here. The description of real-life entropy does not seem to accord with current thinking. The article says that \\\"an arrangement of molecules equally spaced out so you could make a grid out of them is more \\\"chaotic\\\" than a random or haphazard arrangement of molecules.\\\" This is not an accurate description of entropy. Quite the contrary. The Boltzmann definition of entropy is S = k ln W, where W is the number of microstates. At absolute zero, where substances will theoretically form a perfect crystalline configuration, i.e. \\\"you could make a grid out of them\\\", there is only \\\"one\\\" microstate (in reality more, \\\'cause of quantum). So entropy S=0. S does indeed grow larger as the system becomes randomly (though evenly) distributed, in accordance with intuitive concepts of order. There are actual cases in which thermodynamic entropy and intuitive concepts of disorder are opposed, but this is not the typical case. I\\\'m thinking about editing.