Entropy And The Second Law: Interpretation And Misss-Interpretationsss

I was getting ready to order Arieh Ben-Naim's 2008 book, "Entropy Demystified", in order to prepare for a lifetime-learning class on the physics of time when I saw he had a newer book out. It sounded like it addressed issues raised by earlier works so it made sense to get his most current thoughts on the subject. I'm glad I did. I loved "Entropy and the Second Law". It's a fascinating set of topics that are covered in an enlightening and concise way for me. The organization of the book is nice and tight. In only five chapters author Ben-Naim develops his case for abandoning many imprecise descriptions of entropy (disorder, spreading, and freedom) and adopting Shannon's Measure of Information for scientific purposes. Using examples of thermodynamic processes, Ben-Naim shows how these commonly used terms mislead, or are inapplicable, and in any case fail to provide calculable results. Shannon's own words describing the result of his equation included information, choice and uncertainty. Although Shannon was developing a theory of communication, his results apply perfectly to thermodynamics too. (Wigner, where are you?) The math in the book requires some time to digest. How many of us remember how to use Lagrange multipliers to find a max/min with constraints after forty or more years of disuse? Also some derivations are sketchy and the reader is often referred to Ben-Naim's 2008 book which I don't have yet. I found it useful to have a couple of undergraduate books on statistical thermodynamics such as Reif or Müller-Kirsten. The author interacts with the reader via numerous questions and thought experiments to attain your own unique opinion on how to interpret entropy. Among the surprising things I learned, I especially liked the process of assimilation of an ideal gas and its affect on entropy. I don't remember ever seeing that one. I hope there is a second edition of this book that can discuss some different points of view like Sean Carroll's assertion that time's arrow is only explicable with the "Past Hypothesis" which he presents in his book "From Eternity to Here". Another related area that would be nice to touch on is black hole entropy as discussed in Leonard Susskind's book, "Black Hole Wars". Black holes account for most of the entropy in the current universe and there are some mysterious aspects to information disappearing into a black hole. Landauer and Bennett's analysis of Maxwell's Demon warrants at least a comment. The book's value would be enhanced by a much expanded index.

When I graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, I understood how to use the concept of entropy to solve certain problems, especially those pertaining to phase and reaction equilibria, but I never really understood what the concept itself was all about. It was simply a mathematical tool to me. And this frustrated me because I believed the concept to be understandable but simply hadn't been presented to me in such a way to make it so. Since then, I realized that it wasn't as easy as this, that the confusion around entropy is deep, primarily due to the historical timeline of its evolution, with Clausius establishing it as a key cornerstone of Classical Thermodynamics before the atomic theory of matter had been firmly established and accepted. So the cart came before the horse, so to speak. And here we are over 150 years later still wrestling with the consequences of this situation. Thank goodness someone of Arieh Ben-Naim's curiosity and playful intelligence came along to clarify things for us. In this book, and others that he's written on the subject, Ben-Naim explores and clarifies the most fundamental aspects of entropy using fun and colorful examples together wtih sound logic and insight. This book is a delight to read, which says much because it's not often that one can make such a claim about a book on entropy! Bob Hanlon Philadelphia

This is a very good book on Entropy and the second Law of Thermodynamics. Here are a few points which stood out in the book: Some important questions on entropy are studied in chapter 5. This includes: (i) "What is entropy?" (ii) "Why does it increase in one direction?" (iii) "How does a thermodynamic system move from one state to another?" I completely agreed with the author regarding his replies to these questions. I very much enjoyed the way he talked about mixing, assimilation and deassimilation and how the idea of disorder (one of the approaches used to understand entropy) cannot be used to resolve the issues raised when discussing these standard problems. I think that the names used to describe these processes should be changed to take into account what actually happens in the same way that entropy should be dimensionless and so make it far more amenable to an understanding in terms of information. I also found the added sections in chapter five: sections 5.5 and 5.6 extremely valuable. I have found too many scientists willing to make assertions which appear to be true but in fact are really somewhat fanciful ideas without a solid basis in science. I also liked the author's comment on the second law and life and do not think that entropy can be used to study life given it's highly non-equilibrium character unless entropy could be defined in a new way such that it makes sense for processes in non-equilibrium states. I liked how the author stuck to the rigorous definition of entropy and made very good arguments to make sure the concept is not used outside of its range of applicability. I think this should be made far clearer in the standard texts which is why I liked his comment of the splattered egg example often used by other writers even when it does not apply. This book is a picture of clarity in this regard. I also very much liked how he made the point that Shannon Missing Information is a very different thing from entropy and that entropy lies in a subset of this more general concept. This certainly makes the idea of information a far more useful concept in science and more applicable in other fields. I also found that the author introduced the uncertainty principle in a better way in the current book than he did in his 2008 book where the modifications needed for classical ideas seemed to appear suddenly whereas in the current book they were far more natural and made good sense.

I'm a 60 year old engineer who has been on a quest to learn more about physics, science and new theories that have evolved since I left college. One of my targets was revisting the laws of thermodynamics. Professor Ben-Naim's book did not disappoint! I was intriqued with the connection of entropy to probability and uncertainty. This book is well written and a thorough explanation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the entropy of closed systems. I highly recommend reading this book, it was entertaining as well as enlightening. I totally enjoyed the histories and references. Great value and I purchased and read more of his books with more to follow.

This is an excellent book, with a few flaws I'll mention below. It's not a "pop" book. You need at least one year calculus, a course in thermo, and to have at least seen a derivation of Boltzman's Law. The book is a bit of a screed at his critics in places, and sounds a bit hobby horsish in others. There are a few too many places where he refers you to his text book for the details. But the the explanations and insights are excellent. If you want to understand entropy and have the background, outstanding.

Very interesting approach to entropy with an analysis and conclusion I have never seen before. I am not on the level to really evaluate what he says but his analysis was novel and convincing to the degree I followed it. I think thse interested in the subject this book is a must. Bob Schafer

This book is Dedicated on its initial page and then Preface to a rebuke of "an anonymous reviewer" whose critique of his journal article and his book on the best way to explain Entropy the author didn't like. Unfortunately, it continues as a screed against that reviewer and all others who disagree with his approach, with snarky asides throughout that get really, really tiring. I find it odd that no reviewer here to date other than Braithwaite mentions this off-putting weakness in presenting otherwise useful perspectives. About a quarter way through, you want to scream "Just Get Over It!" and throw the book away (I almost did), but if you can tolerate the pissing-contest remarks and make it past that point, he winds down the language on how stupid everyone is who disagrees with him, and his interpretations on Entropy are worthwhile food for thought, whether you agree with him or feel they are conclusive or not.

The author does a great job explaining a very difficult topic. For years I've tried to understand Entropy. After reading this book and others professor Ben-Naim has written on the topic, I now have a sense of clarity and confidence when it comes to this material. If you're trying to understand Entropy, I highly recommend this book.

Professor Ben-Naim puts the entropy in a simple and understandable way, starting from games and little by little progressing into the behavior of atoms. Its view on the subject is quite modern, as he establishes a clear relationship to Shannon's Information Measure. This book can fill the gap which the classical explanations cannot, and his way of writing is clear, simple and friendly. The paperback edition I have is very good quality overall.

copy was good.

actually, a rigourous presentation of the information-theoretic interpretatiion of entropy and the Second Law. A useful reference.

The book does what it says on the label (title). The author clears away a lot of the mental and verbal clutter that has sometimes been associated with the term entropy. There are one or two very minor mis-prints among the pages and a degree of repetition, but this is a readable book which is to be recommended, particularly I think to students (and teachers?) of science who have been introduced to entropy but who are not entirely clear about it.