Looking at Statistical Entropy

Statistical Entropy is probability theory applied to entropy showing that it is a measurement a system’s disorder in. Based mainly on the probability of the positions of molecules it explains the tendency; seen in the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics; of entropy to increase. This tendency is because configurations with high entropy are more probable than configurations of low entropy.

The biggest problem with entropy is that it has a tendency to increase. This makes understanding how to decrease entropy is highly important. A common answer is adding energy to the system though that is all that is needed to decrease its entropy.  However this answer is overly simplistic since when energy is applied to a system the way it affects the system’s entropy depends on the way the energy is applied to the system. Consider the difference between construction work and a bomb. Construction work will decrease the entropy of a building under construction. One the other hand a bomb with the same amount of energy and on the same site will inevitably increase the site’s entropy.

This shows that the manner by which energy is applied to a system affects how that energy changes that system’s entropy. What is needed is a general principle that describes this difference and statistical entropy shows exactly how and when entropy can be decreased it shows how to produce order from disorder. Understanding this is critical to a proper study of origins.

Introduction to Statistical Thermodynamics



Statistical Thermodynamics is field of physics that applies probability theory to studying thermodynamics. Statistical Thermodynamics is also known as Statistical Mechanics. Statistical Thermodynamics provides a way to relate the microscopic world of atoms and molecules to the world we see around us, providing a molecular level interpretation of thermodynamic quantities.

Statistically entropy is based on the probability of molecular positions and 2nd Law of Thermodynamics’ tendency of entropy to increase results from high entropy configurations being more probable than low entropy ones.

Statistical Thermodynamics shows us why the laws of Thermodynamics work the way they do and connects the microscopic and macroscopic worlds in a way nothing else can do. It shows why entropy tends to increase and how and when it can be decreased. The fact entropy is related to the number of possible configurations that a system may have is why it can be considered a measurement of the degree of disorder in a system since disrobed systems have more possible configurations than ordered systems.