Entropy: Quantitative Measure Of Disorder

Why is entropy often described as the “quantitative measure of disorder” (Michaelides)? Is it really disorder? Or is it simply the way nature is intended to work? The explanation, according to most common folk remains that entropy is the measure of how much disorder exists in a specific system. This however, is not actually factual. People often equate entropy with murphy’s law. Believing that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong and that order will always become disorder over time (“Entropy: The Ultimate”). In the case of true entropy, what actually occurs is the following. In closed system, entropy will always tend to be maximized. To reverse the natural process of entropy, energy must be added to the system (“Entropy Is Not”). This

in essence is how the world works. Order becomes ‘disorder’ if no energy is applied to reverse or prevent disorderly changes. The Carbon Cycle and Hydrologic Cycle are the two most known and impactful cycles that keep long-term disorder in order. On Earth, natural processes such as those previously mentioned act as checks and balances to stop, reverse, and slow disorderly changes. This means that the Earth has pre-set limits to its entropy before it no longer is able to survive. Through the use of these processes the Earth is able to maintain relative entropy and function within its operating energy ‘budget’. The relative entropy is maintainable for a rather long period of time, but eventually it will reach a maximum point where there will be no energy left to put into the systems to reverse or halt changes.
To begin, entropy manifests in many different aspects of life, and shows us its true power on a daily basis. Over the short term, entropy is both beneficial and detrimental to human survival. One of the easiest to understand examples of ‘good entropic harm’ is the human aging process. The second law of thermodynamics, commonly described by the word entropy, applies to how the human body attempts to retain homeostasis (“Aging as Entropy”). All of the chemical and metabolic reactions that occur in our body are dictated by the laws of entropy, meaning that they a body that is not in homeostasis (equilibrium) will expend energy to increase entropy in an attempt to reach equilibrium. This is why the human body ages, the processes which regulate homeostasis expend energy from cells, thus making them degrade, in an attempt to maintain genetically inherent conditions (“Entropy”). This is a rather crude picture, but this process is both beneficial and harmful to humans, we age as a result of our bodies trying to survive as long as possible and maintain internally desirable conditions. Another process within the human body that visibly shows entropy, is the process by which teeth decay. Under perfect conditions and regular maintenance, teeth will last forever. However, without the constant input of energy, whether it be by visiting the dentist, brushing, or flossing, teeth will decay. This shows how entropy plays a role in the tooth decay cycle, without inputting energy (increasing entropy) the system leads to long term disorder.
Continuing with entropic manifestations in our surrounding environment, the life span of a tree showcases the cyclic effect of good entropic harm. Trees take the disorder that is present in the atmosphere and ground and turn it into order, thus ‘counteracting’ entropy laws that should govern life. This however is deceivingly optimistic; the reverse entropic effects are simply a tree surviving like a human body does. Trees take in required components that are genetically determined, and organize them into a manor that is useful to them (“A Tree”). The tree then begins cycles of reverse entropy within the greater cycle of entropy. On a daily basis they convert carbon dioxide, water, and sugar into energy for themselves and release oxygen for the rest of the organisms on earth (“A Tree”). The trees take the disorder and use it to their advantage and then create beneficial order for all. Every year a trees leaves change colour and fall to the ground as a result of disorder within the environment. The tree is unable to survive and temporarily begins to decay. The decay cycle is not long enough to kill the tree, simply long enough to desert it of its stores of energy, which increases the entropy of the environment while decreasing the trees own entropic level (“Entropy”). This same concept is how crops grow. They start off as seedlings, energy is input into their closed systems which increases their specific entropic level. As crops grow the use up available energy in the environment and make themselves thrive. Under good conditions they mature and prosper, when they have reached their maximum entropy levels the process reverses, their entropy is released back into the environment to be used up by another cycle. This is nature transforming how the entropy in the earth is used. Nature keeps everything in check, the systems that govern nature, transform the rising entropy by forcing it to develop biologic systems before it can be returned, usually at the cost of the system (trees and crops), into the global entropy cycle.
Furthermore, in the long term processes of life the earth shows how it is able to maintain a relatively consistent entropy through the use of the carbon cycle, and water cycle.

To describe the long term implications of the Carbon Cycle, one must understand the cycle of life. For an organism to be created it must use up resources that are the basis for its survival. Carbon is one of the most crucial resources that is needed for life to survive. When an organism is created it uses up a specific set of resources, which include energy and carbon. The organism then grows and survives continually using up resources, which lower the available energy surrounding it, but increase the potential energy that it contains. When the organism finally reaches the end of its life cycle it begins to degrade, releasing all of its resources back into the environment (Kleidon, 2010). Carbon being one of its building blocks is released back into the environment. The carbon is then available once again for another organism or life cycle to use. This is the basis for the Carbon Cycle, there is a set amount of carbon available, thus when an organism uses it, it must be returned to the environment through life processes which are a result of entropy leading to a maximum point. The Water Cycle works in the exact same manor; however, it is not only used by organisms. Water, along with Carbon is crucial to the biotic and abiotic environments on Earth. The Water Cycle employed natural environmental

processes to cool the earth, regulate biotic growth, destroy biotic environments, and change abiotic conditions. As it applies to biotic life, water is used to grow life, it makes up the majority of the human body (60%) and it allows plants and other species to develop. Water is added and removed through system specific entropy processes. Water, just as Carbon, is only available in a set quantity, so in the end all of it is reused throughout the cycles on Earth (Kleidon, 2010). These are just specific applications of entropic cycles on Earth, and how they are used to keep the relative entropy constant on Earth.
Lastly, the human race, in a sense, has been instrumental to keeping entropy levels constant on Earth.

The reason is we have begun to harness the power of entropy convert into useable forms that we can power our society with. The power of the sun, water, and wind are three natural entropic phenomena on Earth that humans have been able to harness. The negative entropic effects of the Sun on Earth prior to the invention of solar panels was only useful to plant life and not to humans. After the implementation of solar energy production plants, humans were able to harness the negative entropy that was being dissipated into the environment and use it as a source of energy to undo harm that other entropic processes were creating (“Entropy, Disorder”). The implementation of wind farms and hydroelectric dams applies the same principles. Using the potential energy that is always available and converting it into something that is useful to humans. Harnessing the otherwise wasted entropy of Earths natural processes is one of the great achievements in understanding the overall limit of the energy available to us on Earth. Renewable energy sources are not actually renewable, they are simply harnessing wasted potential energy and employing it to create useable energy. This allows the entropy of earth to remain within tolerable levels because it aids the natural processes that regulate

entropy.
To conclude with, entropy is traditionally seen as the progressive transformation of order to disorder. However as seen in daily life events, entropy does not always result in disorder in the short term. Life processes often transform disorder, with the help of energy, to a useable basis for other closed systems to thrive. The energy in those systems is released back into the global cycles of entropy and is consistently used and recycled in those very systems. Order out of chaos is the way entropy impacts us daily. Entropy is just diversity of living and non living things, which also serve as a basis for energy expenditures. The long term evolution of the Earth and the universe that contains it will always move towards high entropy. Matter will continually transform from state A to state B, regardless of entropic intervention. This means there is progress in matter, but no physical end to the matter.