Information entropy and thermal entropy: apples and oranges

L. B. Kish, D. K. Ferry

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The frequent misunderstanding of information entropy is pointed out. It is shown that, contrary to fortuitous situations and common beliefs, there is no general interrelation between the information entropy and the thermodynamical entropy. We point out that the change of information entropy during measurement is determined by the resolution of the measurement instrument and these changes do not have a general and clear-cut interrelation with the change of thermal entropy. Moreover, these changes can be separated in space and time. We show classical physical considerations and examples to support this conclusion. Finally, we show that information entropy can violate the Third Law of Thermodynamics which is another indication of major differences from thermal entropy.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)43-50
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Computational Electronics
Volume17
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Modeling and Simulation
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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