scholarly journals Entropy and Information Theory: Uses and Misuses

Entropy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 1170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arieh Ben-Naim
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Cosmological Constant ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Albert Einstein ◽  
Second Law Of Thermodynamics ◽  
Second Law ◽  
Single Person ◽  
History Of

This article is about the profound misuses, misunderstanding, misinterpretations and misapplications of entropy, the Second Law of Thermodynamics and Information Theory. It is the story of the “Greatest Blunder Ever in the History of Science”. It is not about a single blunder admitted by a single person (e.g., Albert Einstein allegedly said in connection with the cosmological constant, that this was his greatest blunder), but rather a blunder of gargantuan proportions whose claws have permeated all branches of science; from thermodynamics, cosmology, biology, psychology, sociology and much more.

scholarly journals CONTEÚDO DE ENTROPIA NA FÍSICA DO ENSINO MÉDIO: ANÁLISE DO MATERIAL DIDÁTICO E ABORDAGEM HISTÓRICA

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Zanoni Tadeu Saraiva dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Second Law Of Thermodynamics ◽  
School Level ◽  
Second Law ◽  
High School Level ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Teaching History ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
History Of

RESUMO O ensino da segunda lei da termodinâmica e do seu conceito, associado à entropia, tem sido considerado problemático por vários autores. Nesse trabalho iremos compilar os problemas levantados por alguns destes autores na perspectiva de sintetizar as questões e soluções sugeridas, como forma de ampliar a discussão sobre como tratar didaticamente a segunda lei da termodinâmica e a entropia na Física do ensino médio. Fizemos um breve levantamento da abordagem dada ao assunto pelos livros didáticos e propomos que a história e a epistemologia da ciência tenham um papel estruturante em uma prática educativa pautada pelo diálogo. Sugerimos, como parte da construção de um caminho para a entropia, o estabelecimento de três momentos epistemológicos dentro da história da termodinâmica. Esses três momentos serão os balizadores de uma abordagem mais significativa no sentido de que a história da ciência não tenha apenas um papel periférico para o estudo da segunda lei e da entropia. Palavras-chave: Termodinâmica, entropia, ensino, história da ciência. TEACHING ENTROPY IN SECONDARY PHYSICS: ANALYSIS OF TEXTBOOKS AND A HISTORICAL APPROACH. ABSTRACT Many authors consider teaching the second law of thermodynamics historically problematic. In this paper we will compile problems raised by some of these authors in the perspective of synthesizing questions and solutions suggested, as a mean to widen the discussion on how to treat didactically the second law and entropy in high school level. We did a brief review on how textbooks approach this subject and came to a conclusion that the history of science and the study of relationships among, science, technology and society should be considered as integrating part of any didactical approach grounded in a dialogical educational view. We suggest as part of a way to entropy, the establishment of three epistemological moments within the history of thermodynamics. These three moments will serve as guiding elements for a more meaningful approach, in a sense that the history of science will not only play a peripheral role in the didactic treatment of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics. Keywords: Thermodynamics, entropy, teaching, history of science.

W. J. M. Rankine and the Rise of Thermodynamics

1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Hutchison
Keyword(s):  
Second Law Of Thermodynamics ◽  
Second Law ◽  
Heat Conservation ◽  
History Of ◽  
William Thomson

In the history of thermodynamics, two dates stand out as especially important: 1824, when Sadi Carnot's brilliant memoir Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu appeared in print; and 1850, when Rudolf Clausius published his similarly titled paper ‘Ueber die bewegende Kraft der Wärme’. In this paper Clausius narrowly beat the Scottish physicist William Thomson to the solution of a puzzle which had been highlighted in the latter's recent publications: how could Carnot's theory, with all its intellectual attractions, be reconciled with the newly discovered principle of the inter-convertibility of heat and work? Clausius's solution (as is well known) was to replace Carnot's axiom of heat conservation, with the axiom now known as the second law of thermodynamics.

A unified picture of cosmological entropy on apparent horizon in F(R, G) gravity

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (33) ◽  
pp. 1750182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali İhsan Keskin ◽  
Irfan Acikgoz
Keyword(s):  
Apparent Horizon ◽  
Second Law Of Thermodynamics ◽  
Hawking Temperature ◽  
Second Law ◽  
Field Equations ◽  
Frw Universe ◽  
Generalized Second Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Friedmann Robertson Walker

In this study, the validity of the generalized second law of thermodynamics (GSLT) has been investigated in F(R, G) gravity. We consider that the boundary of the universe is surrounded by an apparent horizon in the spatially flat Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) universe, and we take into account the Hawking temperature on the horizons. The unified solutions of the field equations corresponding to gravity theory have been applied to the validity of the GSLT frame, and in this way, both the solutions have been verified and all the expansion history of the universe has been shown in a unified picture.

scholarly journals From Thermodynamic Entropy to Knowledge Entropy

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 589-596
Author(s):  
Constantin Bratianu
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Open Systems ◽  
Second Law Of Thermodynamics ◽  
The Body ◽  
Natural Phenomenon ◽  
Second Law ◽  
Computational Formula ◽  
Absolute Entropy ◽  
Concept Of Information

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to present the evolution of the concept of entropy from engineering to knowledge management, going through information theory, linguistic entropy, and economic entropy. The concept of entropy was introduced by Rudolf Clausius in thermodynamics in 1865 as a measure of heat transfer between two solid bodies which have different temperatures. As a natural phenomenon, heat flows from the body with a higher temperature toward the body with a lower temperature. However, Rudolf Clausius defined only the change in entropy of the system and not its absolute entropy. Ludwig Boltzmann defined later the absolute entropy by studying the gas molecules behavior in a thermal field. The computational formula defined by Boltzmann relates the microstates of a thermal system with its macrostates. The more uniform the probability distribution of the microstates is the higher the entropy is. The second law of thermodynamics says that in open systems, when there is no intervention from outside, the entropy of the system increases continuously. The concept of entropy proved to be very powerful, fact for which many researchers tried to extend its semantic area and the application domain. In 1948, Claude E. Shannon introduced the concept of information entropy, having the same computational formula as that defined by Boltzmann, but with a different interpretation. This concept solved many engineering communications problems and is used extensively in information theory. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen used the concept of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics in economics and business. Today, many researchers in economics use the concept of entropy for analyzing different phenomena. The present paper explores the possibility of using the concept of knowledge entropy in knowledge management.

Cultivating Chaos: Entropy, Information, and the Making of the Dictionary of National Biography

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Cara Murray
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
Second Law Of Thermodynamics ◽  
Second Law ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Entropy Information ◽  
Self Development ◽  
National Biography ◽  
Infinite Energy ◽  
Private Collections

The Dictionary of National Biography, published between 1885 and 1900, was one of Britain's biggest cyclopedia projects. The rampant expansion of the nation's archives, private collections, and museums produced an abundance of materials that frustrated the dictionary's editors, Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, especially because methodologies for making order of such materials were underdeveloped. Adding to their frustration was the sense of impending doom felt generally in Britain after the discovery of the second law of thermodynamics in 1859. Entropy put an end to the presiding belief in the infinite energy that fueled Britain's economic development and therefore challenged Victorian biography's premise that the capacity for self-development was boundless. Like the physicists of the era, these dictionary makers searched for ways to circumvent entropy's deadening force and reenergize their world. This project would not actually be achieved, however, until the twentieth century when Claude Shannon published his “Information Theory” in 1948. I argue that in an attempt to get out from under the chaos of information overload, the editors of the DNB invented new methods to organize information that anticipated Shannon's revolutionary theory and changed the way that we think, write, and work.

Bringing the human actors back on stage: the personal context of the Einstein–Bohr debate

1994 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Albert Einstein ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Personal Context ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
The Individual

In concluding his ‘Autobiographical notes’, Albert Einstein explained that the purpose of his exposition was to ‘show the reader how the efforts of a life hang together and why they have led to expectations of a definite form’. Einstein's remarks tell of a coherence between personal ‘strivings and searchings’ and scientific activity, which has all but vanished in the midst of the current trend of social constructivism in history of science. As Nancy Nersessian recently pointed out, in the process of illuminating complex relationships between scientific activity and its social context, ‘socio-historical analysis has “black-boxed” the individual scientist’. Has the pendulum swung too far? In reaction to the preceding great-man hagiographie approach to the history of science, the social constructivists have largely ‘thrown the baby out with the bathwater’; consideration of individual scientists' personal approaches to science was unnecessarily expunged with the removal of ‘genius’ as an explanatory tool.

scholarly journals General Psychology Walks Again

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Engelsted
Keyword(s):  
Second Law Of Thermodynamics ◽  
Second Law ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Evolutionary Sequence ◽  
General Psychology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Herbert Spencer ◽  
History Of ◽  
Crisis Of Psychology

Explaining the role, importance, and basic layout of general psychology, the paper has two parts. In the first part, told as a ghost story, we visit the long history of general psychology and its usual absence, aka the crisis of psychology. Drawing on the insights of among others George Henry Lewes, Herbert Spencer, Karl Bühler, and Lev Vygotsky, a number of requirements are listed that the author believes are necessary for a general psychology. In the second part is sketched the author’s proposal for such a general psychology. Built on Aristotle’s taxonomy of bio-psyches, the proposal divides psychology into four subdomains, each in need of explanation. In evolutionary sequence: Sentience, which posits the psychological present moment or now. Intentionality, which posits the future. Mind, which posits the past. Human consciousness, which posits the view from without. Sentience remains unexplained. Intentionality is linked to the second law of thermodynamics. Mind is linked to REMS in mammals. Human consciousness is linked to a new understanding of human evolution in which all the defining attributes of the human being – society, consciousness, and language – arrive all at once and together.

Information theory and the second law of thermodynamics

2020 ◽  
pp. 391-408
Author(s):  
Roman V. Belavkin ◽  
Panos M. Pardalos ◽  
Jose C. Principe ◽  
Ruslan L. Stratonovich
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Second Law Of Thermodynamics ◽  
Second Law
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