Re: entropy

[palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)]

> 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.

I'm very glad you're aboard, Doug. I had a very brief look at your page
(I'll peruse it later) and it appears to reinforce all my prejudices
appropriately. I will comment, however, that there remains a very small
residual entropy difference between amporphous silicon and crystalline
silicon at zero kelvins*. I'll answer the other contributions at the
weekend; right now I've got my second lecture of the day to prepare, on
black holes - no entropy discussion on them for the introductory
astronomy students! I will also discuss that silicon problem further if
you wish.

Leigh

*That is the orthodox view.