Entropy

I learned a new word recently: Entropy. I'm writing about it because I think it is such an incredible word. There are many incredible words that are so for their own reasons. For example, the word palindrome is incredible because of the way it makes my mouth feel. Entropy is incredible because of it's meaning. Rather, it's possible meanings, depending on what context it is used in.

Wikipedia says that:

Entropy is a thermodynamic property that can be used to determine the energy available for useful work in a thermodynamic process, such as in energy conversion devices, engines, or machines.

This roughly means that in a running car engine, for instance, there is a certain amount of energy that is wasted. The waste is usually discharged in the form of heat. Entropy is a measurement of what that waste is. Maybe turbochargers take advantage of entropy? That is a question.

However entropy has other meanings as well. In information theory, entropy is defined as a way to measure the best guess you could make about a piece of data if you didn't have all the information. While that isn't exactly right, it's not entirely wrong, by the way. Data compression schemes benefit from entropy measurement when determining how much  a piece of data can be compressed by. This actually turns out to be extremely important. Every bit of information that is sent or received by a computer system is compressed in some manner.

There are other meanings. Too much to get into here.

I think the explanation I understand best is that entropy is a measure of unpredictability. If someone is always surprising you with their words or actions, you could say that person has high entropy, at least as it relates to the rate at which your are surprised by them. It's probably better to say that your ability to predict their actions is entropically inclined. A physicist or chemist would calculate the energy released by your persons act of unpredictability and the energy you release being surprised by it. Another physicist might include his or herself and the measurement devices entropy. Another way to put it is if one were to separate a bunch of red and blue marbles and in a bowl dump the blue ones on top of the red, then vibrate the bowl, after a certain amount of time, the marbles would be evenly distributed. The reason why they eventually mix together is because of the degree of disorder that affects everything. Everything eventually returns to a disorganized state, that is to say, the Earth. If I'm wrong or not right enough about any of this, please feel free to comment and correct me.

I didn't really have a point, just wanted to talk a little bit about entropy and what a fascinating word it is to me. If you want to know more, click here.

And donate to Wikipedia for Pete's sake!

Mixed Pics

Here's a little bit of what I've been up to since my last post. I took my kids to the trains again (they loved them), Halloween happened, we visited the air museum, and I went on a little walkabout in Coconut Grove. I met homeless people there and listened to a little bit of their stories. One guy told me a story of a boat, a romance, and a drug deal gone wrong. I took his picture and included it here. I wasn't surprised to learn that even in their terrible situations, they could still find love. Lucky them.

This is the only picture from the zoo I wanted to post. These kangaroos look emaciated.

On this plane, every time the guns or rockets fired, these cameras would turn on for several seconds. The pilots were instructed to keep the plane pointed at the target until the guns or rockets found their target, or missed. That is how they would verify kills.

If you view the enlarged pic, you will see a perfect "m" bird shape in the break between the clouds. Also, wtf is with the logo? Weird... and nasty.

I thought this nosecone was interesting up close.

This boat is the home of a man who's wife got into some trouble with a drug dealer.

It is obvious that the he loved that boat.

At the park.

I recently learned that these days, shoes on a telephone wire indicate gang borders. It used to mean that the shoes owners was a liar, and their pants were on fire. I'm not sure which is worse, crossing into gang territory, or being a liar and finding out your pants are on fire. How times change, I guess.

Looks like the building is wearing a hat. Or ablaze.

All the detail going on in this tiny waterfall is amazing to me.

Water is so crazy. So random. There is so much that happens on a small scale all around us. It's too bad we don't take the time to diligently inspect our physical world beyond what is required to keep ourselves safe.

All these differently shaped lines and angles were interesting to me.

My 5 year old son actually took this. Pretty neat, huh?

This one, too.

More shapes and light. I wish I knew what all those bolts held in place. They couldn't all be for the steel plate, right? I have to get inside that thing. Next time.