Re: 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
Bill Hamilton (hamilton@predator.cs.gmr.com)
Tue, 20 Jan 1998 16:19:21 -0500At 12:40 PM -0500 1/20/98, David Bowman wrote:
>I too would like to butt in here with the observation that both of the
>two entropies listed above are really just two different applications of
>the *same* underlying general abstract concept applied to two different
>situations. The entropies of Gibbs and of Shannon are both special cases
>of the entropy concept of Bayesian probability theory. That is, entropy
>is a measure of the uncertainty about the outcome of a random process
>characterized by a given probability distribution. Each probability
>distribution possesses an entropy and entropy is a functional on the space
>of probability distributions, and, as such, is, therefore, a statistic.
David: Thanks for posting this. There's a lot of confusion about the
meaning of entropy, and I count myself one of the confused. Could you
recommend books or papers for further reading?
Bill Hamilton
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William E. Hamilton, Jr, Ph.D. | Staff Research Engineer
Chassis and Vehicle Systems | General Motors R&D Center | Warren, MI
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