Definition:

1.  A thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system.

2.  Lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder. [REF]

Deconstruction:

Entropy is a scientific term, denoted by the symbol “S”, which is the foundation for the 2nd law of thermodynamics.  The most common visualization of entropy in the scientific realm is related to trending heat flow equilibrium.  This phenomenon causes a solid ice cube at room temperature to spontaneously transition to liquid water. 

The key elements of entropy are that it describes the level of organization for given system, and that all configurations naturally trend from order (low entropy) to randomness (high entropy).

Thermodynamics is boring, so we’re going to focus on the broader, and more interesting, definition of entropy in a real-world situation. 

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Imagine you’re back in your teenage years at the local town fair.  You leave school early to get there right when the ride opens.  You and your friends head directly for the bumper cars, and are lucky enough to get in line for the first ride of the day. 

The carts are all shiny and clean, lined up neatly against the near wall of the oval shaped pen.  The gate opens, and you pile into the seats with your cronies, everyone trying to get their chariot color of choice.  The two slow kids at the back of the line get relegated to the double-seat couple’s ride.  This machine is slow, with a terrible turning radius.  They are at a clear disadvantage.

All vehicles occupied, the power engages via the rigid rods connected to the electrified ceiling, and screeching hard rubber wheels start rolling on the smooth concrete floor. 

Initial motion is slow, as everyone feeling out the pedal’s acceleration sensitivity, and steering wheel’s responsiveness.  Escaping from the tightly packed parallel parking formation proves difficult.  Bumpers knock together gently as their driver seek freedom, and eventually everyone gets moving.  The poor duo in the back of the line are the last to engage.

Three minutes later, the empty sanctity of the rink has devolved into pure chaos.  Carts dart and glide, turn and whirl, abstract criss-crossing paths, occasionally intersecting.  In abruptly collisions.     

The buzzer goes off and the power disengages to all the rigs.  A few of your pals bang their hands on the steering wheel, frustrated with both their inability to line up one of their friends for a direct hit, and the unacceptably short duration of the ride.  The scrawny, pimple faced crew hops out of the carts, which are now strewn across the arena, and head to the exit gate.

As viewed from above, the bumper car pen has transformed from 12 vehicles in a tidy, straight line to an absolute mess. 

A pair of machines are very close to their starting position, in a same parallel orientation along the near wall.  Except now, they are touching front-to-front, as opposed to the original sequentially parked position. 

A set of 4 bumper cars are tangled together slightly off center from the middle of the arena.  Typically, the operators just let the next group of paying riders pile in and extricate themselves.  However, after this last pack of hellions, a few of the bumpers are mechanically bound, locked together and requiring some quick pry-bar detachment work.

Most notably, the 2-seater is wedged in the far corner of the rink, pinned in by one machine, with another about 5 feet back, poised for another of the relentless side impacts it delivered for the last 30 seconds of the ride.  Fortuitously, the power outage saved the coupe’s pair of occupants from another in the series of relentless beatings.

Order to disorder.  Clear organization to complete unpredictability.  Randomness at its finest, with significant effort needed to return the moved objects to original state.  That’s entropy.

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Details:

• Thorough description of how entropy applies to thermodynamics.  A helpful playing card example is used, but there’s also lots of equations and symbols, so dive in at your own risk. [REF]

• Basic, but thorough, write-up outlining entropy in simple terms.  This description uses a billiards analogy, so there seems to be a game theme associated with entropy explanations. [REF]