Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

What is Entropy?

05/01/2019 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST
Free

WHAT IS ENTROPY?

“Entropy is disorder.”
You’ve learned this from popular culture, you’ve learned this in your physical science, chemistry, or biology class.
But what does that *mean*? We have an intuitive sense for what “disorder” is, but how do you really define it rigorously for a scientific concept?

There are two ways to approach it; one is as a term in thermodynamic equations, the other is as a fundamental concept from statistical mechanics (on which thermodynamics is based).

In this talk, I will try to convey the true fundamental definition of entropy at a level that anybody can understand. We will roll dice, we will talk about how physical systems can be more “ordered” or “disordered” in a rigorous sense, and hopefully we will shed some light on what entropy really is.

Podcast Interview with Rob

 

Rob Knop 

Homepage

Blog

Previous work in the Library

Previous work in the Film Collection

Details

  • Date: 05/01/2019
  • Time:
    10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST
  • Cost: Free

Venue

  • Auditorium

Organiser

  • Chantal Jager