What does ectropy mean?

Definitions for ectropy
ec·tropy

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word ectropy.


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Wikipedia

  1. ectropy

    In information theory and statistics, negentropy is used as a measure of distance to normality. The concept and phrase "negative entropy" was introduced by Erwin Schrödinger in his 1944 popular-science book What is Life? Later, Léon Brillouin shortened the phrase to negentropy. In 1974, Albert Szent-Györgyi proposed replacing the term negentropy with syntropy. That term may have originated in the 1940s with the Italian mathematician Luigi Fantappiè, who tried to construct a unified theory of biology and physics. Buckminster Fuller tried to popularize this usage, but negentropy remains common. In a note to What is Life? Schrödinger explained his use of this phrase. ... if I had been catering for them [physicists] alone I should have let the discussion turn on free energy instead. It is the more familiar notion in this context. But this highly technical term seemed linguistically too near to energy for making the average reader alive to the contrast between the two things.

Wikidata

  1. Ectropy

    In thermodynamics, ectropy is a measure of the tendency of a dynamical system to do useful work and grow more organized. Ectropy, in a loose sense, can be thought of as the opposite of entropy. Ectropy is minus entropy. That is, instead of saying "lose entropy" you can say "gain ectropy", instead of saying "gain entropy" you can say "lose ectropy". The term was introduced in the late 20th century by mathematician and philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine and is often more intuitive than its counterpart. The term's merit is that in order to understand a concept, it can be useful to look at it from the other side. Sloppily speaking, ectropy signifies order; slightly more exactly, usable energy. Actually, what we call energy is often ectropy. The Earth, for example, gets electromagnetic waves from the Sun and sends electromagnetic waves back into space, but the incoming waves have shorter wavelengths and therefore more ectropy. So the Earth's ectropy is increased by the Sun. When we eat, we take in ectropy from the food. The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that in a closed system, ectropy will decrease. An organism which is isolated from the outside world will die and deteriorate because its ectropy decreases. It needs ectropy coming from the environment to keep living.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of ectropy in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of ectropy in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

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"ectropy." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Oct. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/ectropy>.

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