entropy 的詞源

1868年，源自德語 Entropie，意爲“系統無序程度的度量”，由德國物理學家魯道夫·克勞修斯（Rudolph Clausius）（1822-1888）於1865年創造（類比於 Energie），用於他關於熱力學定律的著作中，源自希臘語 entropia，意爲“轉向”，由 en “在”（見 en-（2））和 trope “轉動，轉化”（源自 PIE 詞根 *trep- “轉動”）組成。這個概念被認爲是“轉化內容”。相關詞彙： Entropic。

It was not until 1865 that Clausius invented the word entropy as a suitable name for what he had been calling "the transformational content of the body." The new word made it possible to state the second law in the brief but portentous form: "The entropy of the universe tends toward a maximum," but Clausius did not view entropy as the basic concept for understanding that law. He preferred to express the physical meaning of the second law in terms of the concept of disgregation, another word that he coined, a concept that never became part of the accepted structure of thermodynamics. [Martin J. Klein, "The Scientific Style of Josiah Willard Gibbs," in "A Century of Mathematics in America," 1989]

直到1865年，克勞修斯才發明了熵這個詞，作爲他一直稱之爲“物體轉化內容”的合適名稱。新詞使得第二定律能夠以簡潔而重要的形式陳述：“宇宙的熵趨向於最大值”，但克勞修斯並不認爲熵是理解該定律的基本概念。他更喜歡用分散的概念來表達第二定律的物理意義，這是他創造的另一個詞，但這個概念從未成爲熱力學結構的一部分。[馬丁·克萊因（Martin J. Klein），《美國數學百年史》，1989年]