Re: entropy

[Doug Craigen <dcc@cyberspc.mb.ca>]

On Fri, 22 Nov 1996, Rauber, Joel              Phys wrote:

> Leigh,
> You wrote
>
> > *Perhaps the worst is the association of entropy with disorder. It is
> > difficult to pry the student loose from this idea later on. I get to
> > teach thermo next semester; I'll hit this barrier again
>
> Could you expand your thoughts on this further; I'd greatly like to hear 
> your opinions.  I'm about to talk about entropy in two weeks and would find 
> this fascinating.

Pardon me for jumping in late, I've just rejoined phys-l after a few years
away.

This business of equating entropy with disorder is a pet peeve of mine.  I
guess I got into it while doing my thesis research on amorphous silicon.
It occured to me that if one cooled a-Si towards zero K, its entropy would
approach 0.  i.e. there is no residual entropy due to the disorder in the
structure.

You can find my thoughts explained in some detail in a page on "God,
Entropy, and Evolution" (it was necessary to provide some expanation  of 
the terms being used) at http://www.freenet.mb.ca/accc/evol.html";.  I give
references at the end to some other pages touching on the same issues.

|++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
| Doug Craigen                                                 |
|                                                              |
| If you think Physics is no laughing matter, think again .... |
|    http://cyberspc.mb.ca/~dcc/phys/humor.html                |
|++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|