Entropy For Dummies: How To Do It The Easy Way
A simple beginner’s framework for entropy!
In this essay on entropy for dummies, I will be focusing on a generalised framework that not only enables the reader to easily understand the scientific notion of entropy, but also to benefit from the knowledge in practical real-life applications.
In my previous essay on entropy, I covered Claude Shannon’s framework for entropy (information theory). While still useful knowledge in the context of practical applications, this framework requires the reader to have a fundamental understanding of how logarithms work.
As opposed to that framework, the one that I will be presenting in this essay requires that the reader only be familiar with grade-school-level math and logic. Without any further ado, let us begin.
A Game with a Bag of Coins
Let us start with a thought experiment. I give you a bag containing one hundred coins. Each of these coins has two sides: heads and tails. Now, I request you to exuberantly shake the bag and then unload the whole lot onto the floor.
As you can imagine, this would cause the coins to randomly bump against each other, roll over, get flipped, etc., before they land on the floor. Regardless of what happens, each of these coins…
