> Many people focus on the statistical definition of entropy and the fact that entropy increases for any spontaneous process. Fewer people are familiar with thinking about entropy as the conjugate thermodynamic variable to temperature. Just as volumes shift to equalize pressure, areas shift to equalize surface tension, and charges shift to equalize voltage, entropy is the "stuff" that shifts to equalize temperature. (Entropy is of course also unique in that it's generated in all four processes.) Entropy is thus in some ways the modern version of the debunked theory of caloric.
> Just as volumes shift to equalize pressure, areas shift to equalize surface tension, and charges shift to equalize voltage, entropy is the "stuff" that shifts to equalize temperature.
I remember watching videos of Leonard Susskind in which he talked about a similar phenomenon where circuit complexity itself increases till it maximizes. It behaves similar to entropy.
> Many people focus on the statistical definition of entropy and the fact that entropy increases for any spontaneous process. Fewer people are familiar with thinking about entropy as the conjugate thermodynamic variable to temperature. Just as volumes shift to equalize pressure, areas shift to equalize surface tension, and charges shift to equalize voltage, entropy is the "stuff" that shifts to equalize temperature. (Entropy is of course also unique in that it's generated in all four processes.) Entropy is thus in some ways the modern version of the debunked theory of caloric.