What is the difference between entropy and chaos?
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-entropy-and-chaos
Answer 1
Entropy is nothing but arrangements of energy. Lower entropy mean concentration and higher entropy mean distribution. Our entropy of universe increases. Though it is probalistic but predictable. But Chaos is unpredictable in nature where we apply this concept
——
Answer 2
The more disordered something is, the more entropic we consider it. In short, we can define entropy as a measure of the disorder of the universe, on both a macro and a microscopic level. The Greek root of the word translates to “a turning towards transformation” — with that transformation being chaos
Answer 3
entropy is the measure of energy dispersion. the more entropy, the more equally the energy is distributed. it’s like things always strive for the ultimate balance, which we associate with disorder, because from our subjective perspective it is not compatible with life.
chaos is a system that exhibits complex dynamics, which is sensitive to initial conditions. chaotic behavior has a certain order. for example, the instensity of its fluctuations follow the power law distribution.
one could assume that chaos is a result of interplay between the orderly features of life and entropy.
—–
Answer 4
Entropy is related to energy, the capacity for doing work: either converting something from one state to another (constructive/productive), maintaining an existing state against becoming disordered (equilibrium), or altering an existing state toward more disorder (destructive). Higher disorder means higher entropy (lower ability for energy to be spent on work), and full entropy = zero energy (no further ability to do work in the system).
Chaos describes a system where small initial inputs can produce large outputs through a complex chain of unexpected and unforeseen interconnections. There may be an ultimate order and organization in what we see as chaotic systems, but we consider them “chaotic” when we lack understanding of and control over that order or organization.
Control is the opposite of chaos. Directing energy through a system with the ability to achieve a predicted/intended outcome means having control. Directing energy through a chaotic system will yield unpredictable outcomes. We cannot exercise control – produce predictable outcomes – inside a fully entropic system, as no work can be done. But full entropy would not make that system chaotic, as we likewise could not expend energy to produce unpredictable (chaotic) outcomes in a fully entropic system. Total entropy means no outcomes at all can be produced; neither predicable outcomes (result of control) nor unpredictable outcomes (result of chaos).
———
Answer 5
Some would think that entropy and chaos are interchangeable terms, which I do not personally believe. What I think is that chaos is a word used to describe entropy and the effects of entropy, but they are not interchangeable. I’ll elaborate:
Entropy can be defined as a degree of disorder which describes the amount of order (and thus disorder) in a system. A great example of this is with solids and gases: If you imagine the atoms/molecules in a solid block of ice, they will be very order and will usually have a very defined and organized order to their placement. Now, once you increase the temperature, the system will become more disordered since it will become a liquid and thus flow much more easily (think of the molecules now being like a soup of molecules which can flow). And then when you increase the temperature more, the molecules will gain more energy allowing them to become much more disordered since they will be farther away from other molecules than in the solid or liquid forms. Thus you can imagine how as you go from solid to gas, disorder increases—so I hope that helps.
Chaos typically describes randomness and unpredictability. In the previous example, chaos does not do well to explain it, in my opinion, since we are not dealing with very much randomness since the molecules are becoming more disordered, but not necessarily at a random rate, etc.
There is a degree of unpredictability in the previous example and even in entropy in general, since in a solid it is much easier to predict the location and order of the molecules or atoms in a solid sample than, for example, a gas. This is because the molecules in a solid are much more ordered than in a gas, making it easier to predict where they will be (you can think about this with Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle if you would like as well).
So overall, I do not think the term “chaos” is best to describe entropy, since entropy does not always mean “randomness” (it means disorder, unpredictability, etc). Chaos can mean unpredictability as well which is why that part of the term fits pretty well, but not totally.
—–
What is the difference between entropy and atrophy?
As an example, consider the three states of matter:
In a gas, the particles are moving here and there at great speeds, colliding with each other and changing their direction all the time. The system is highly disordered. Therefore it cannot retain any shape, and expands to fill all available space. It is like football players running around in the field. Their positions change continuously, and at any instant, you can only predict that a particular player is somewhere in the football field.
On the other hand, particles in a solid are well-behaved; they are arranged in rows and columns in the crystal lattice, and do not move away from their positions. This is like students sitting on benches in the class room. At any given instant, you can confidently say that a particular student is sitting on a particular bench and his exact position on the bench.
Liquids are somewhere in between the above two extremes. The particles move, but they do not go very far away from each other. They jostle against each other and so offer some resistance to free movement of the particles (this is called viscosity). The situation is analogous to a crowd in a festival place. People move randomly, but there is very little space.
The disorder or randomness in the system is thus in the following order:
Solids < liquids < gases
In other words, we say that liquids have more entropy than solids, and gases have even more entropy than liquids.
You know that to change a liquid into gas, you have to heat it. But wipe the floor with a wet towel. You will immediately see a layer of water on the floor, but as you are looking on, the water disappears and the floor becomes dry. Where did the water go? It evaporated (changed into a gas), but you did not heat it. Then why did it happen? The water changed from a slightly disorderly (liquid) to a highly disorderly (gas) state by itself. This is because the natural tendency is for systems to become more disorderly (or to increase their entropy).
Another example: Books in your study room become scattered and lie around here and there on the table, on the bed and on the floor (I am sure you will claim this happened by itself and will not assume any responsibility to scattering them). The room has become more disorderly (by itself). But no room ever becomes orderly by itself! Your mother or the house maid has to work hard to put all the books back in its respective place on the shelves.
Another example: In an earth quake, a building easily crumbles into a random pile of bricks, mortar and dust. But you never see the random pile going back to become the building by itself.
Enthalpy is the heat (or energy) content in a system. The natural tendency is for systems to change from a high energy state to a low energy state (or in the direction of decreasing enthalpy).
Examples:
A glass of hot water cools by itself. But a glass of cold water does not become hot by itself. You have to heat it.
Cooked rice has more enthalpy than raw rice, because
raw rice + water + heat → cooked rice
——-