Entropy: What does it mean and what does it say about our lives?

Let me start by saying that I know very little about chemistry.

Last week in class, we heard Professor Brian Coppola discuss how the way in which chemicals combine and form is all based on statistics, on the probability that a group will be “same” or “different.” according to Professor Coppola, in most cases, the probability that a group of molecules, atoms, or materials will be “different” or disorganized is much larger than the alternative. In effect, chemical compounds are likely to be disorganized.

This conclusion caught me off guard. Last week I attended TEDx, and a speaker, Dr. Sharon Glotzer, talked fully about entropy, what it means in chemistry but also how it could relate to our lives. She continued to repeat: “There are more ways for the objects to be ordered than disordered.”

Maybe I’m looking at this all the wrong way, or maybe I just don’t understand chemistry and misheard her, but isn’t this conclusion the opposite? I specifically recall her showing a simulation of a bunch of molecules being thrown into a box. She showed that as the box was shaken, the molecules began to assemble geometrically, limiting the amount of extra space between molecules and compacting the volume of the group (if anyone can find a video of this, please post. I'm out of luck.)

How does this relate to the simulation that Professor Coppola showed yesterday with the marbles? As he shook the vile, the marbles didn’t form any sort of pattern or form. Instead, they were displaced randomly and remained so.

A potential conclusion could be that his demonstration wasn’t attempting to show the geometric organization that could or could not result, but rather how there was no organization in where the red or green marbles would end up. If someone clear this topic up for me, that would be great.

For now, I’m going to take Wikipedia’s stance on entropy:

“In classical thermodynamics, the concept of entropy is defined phenomenologically by the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy of an isolated system always increases or remains constant. Thus, entropy is also a measure of the tendency of a process, such as a chemical reaction, to be entropically favored, or to proceed in a particular direction. It determines that thermal energy always flows spontaneously from regions of higher temperature to regions of lower temperature, in the form of heat. These processes reduce the state of order of the initial systems, and therefore entropy is an expression of disorder or randomness.”

“In statistical mechanics, entropy is a measure of the number of ways in which a system may be arranged, often taken to be a measure of "disorder" (the higher the entropy, the higher the disorder). This definition describes the entropy as being proportional to the natural logarithm of the number of possible microscopic configurations of the individual atoms and molecules of the system (microstates) which could give rise to the observed macroscopic state (macrostate) of the system.”

In general, I’m reading that entropy is more associated with disorder rather than order. What was Dr. Glotzer referring to?

I think this concept of organization is relatable to not only molecules and materials, but to our everyday lives. “There are more ways for the objects to be disordered than ordered.” This could be the philosophy behind our instincts to organize our days, organize people, and organize games. Just as molecules are statistically more likely to be disordered, so are our lives (maybe a stretch, but maybe not). I guess, all I’m saying is that next time you have no idea what’s going on and feel like you have no control over the chaos surrounding you…blame entropy.

Here is a very entertaining mix on entropy and with a very cool trick that may involve entropy:

(hint: the trick is not real.)