Re: Entropy

[John Denker <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 10:04 PM 2/4/00 -0500, Chuck Britton wrote:
> It's no wonder that some HS teacher continue to promulgate such
> blatantly dangerous notions as entropy being related to disorder.
>
> SOMEBODY working for the AIP has similar misconceptions!


I'm not sure what you're complaining about.
I'm not even sure whether you're being facetious or not.

If you think Seth Lloyd's statement is false, please explain why.

If you think it is blatantly dangerous, please explain why.  Please be as
specific as possible.

If you think the two underlined words should bring to mind some "well
known" counterargument, please provide a reference.



> Number 469 (Story #1), February 2, 2000 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein
>
>
> DIGITAL ENTROPY How much information does it take to control
> something? By combining thermodynamics with information theory, MIT
> researchers (contact
> Seth Lloyd, 617-252-1803, slloyd@mit.edu) have determined the minimum
> amount of information one needs to bring an unruly object under
> control, providing quantitative answers to such subjects as taming
> chaos.
>
> From the perspective of thermodynamics, controlling an object means
> reducing its
> disorder, or entropy. Lowering the disorder of a hot gas, for
> ^^^^^^^^     ^^^^^^^
> example, decreases the
> number of possible microscopic arrangements in the gas. This in turn
> removes some of the uncertainty from the gas's detailed properties.