Entropy (statistical thermodynamics)

<p>The concept entropy was first developed by German physicist <a href="/facts/Rudolf_Clausius/RMgFgY7I">Rudolf Clausius</a> in the mid-nineteenth century as a thermodynamic property that predicts that certain spontaneous processes are irreversible or impossible. In <a href="/facts/Statistical_mechanics/6zMsNYYG">statistical mechanics</a>, <a href="/facts/Entropy/s52IXeFz">entropy</a> is formulated as a statistical property using <a href="/facts/Probability_theory/mFBn51rE">probability theory</a>. The statistical entropy perspective was introduced in 1870 by Austrian physicist <a href="/facts/Ludwig_Boltzmann/xDeLroqt">Ludwig Boltzmann</a>, who established a new field of <a href="/facts/Physics/a7aH2y08">physics</a> that provided the descriptive linkage between the macroscopic observation of nature and the microscopic view based on the rigorous treatment of large ensembles of microscopic states that constitute <a href="/facts/Thermodynamic_system/VUr0kpWu">thermodynamic systems</a>.
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Entropy (statistical thermodynamics) open-in-new

Entropy (statistical thermodynamics)