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Entropy



As David mentioned, I have only small disagreement with his picture.
That disagreement turns on the topic of "quenched disorder". While
I understand what that means for a glass, where a recognizable
breech of degeneracy exists, I will point out that no such breech
of degeneracy occurs in the cese of a deck of cards. The ordered
pack has exactly the same entropy as the disordered pack, and the
ordered pack is clearly not in a state of "quenched disorder".

The problem here arises from the common perception of order. If a
pack of cards is arranged according to suits and pips we say it is
ordered, but that is a cultural, not a physical distinction. The
physical idea of order is quite different in this case. All
possible arrangements of the deck are equally orderly from a
physical perspective.

I think the idea of teaching that entropy is a measure of the
disorder of a system is likely to confuse the student who seeks to
understand entropy as we do. Moreover it gives aid and comfort to
religious fanatics who do not seek physical understanding. The
association of entropy with disorder should not be introduced to
students until a quantitative measure of disorder can be defined
and associated with the entropy, and that can't be done at the
high school level. In the case of a deck of cards it can't be done
in other than an arbitrary manner.

Leigh