What does the concept of entropy mean?

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What does the concept of entropy mean?

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Entropy is the inherent randomness/chaos in a system that tends to bring it to a neutral state.

Imagine a garden; perfectly trimmed and weeded with rows of flowers and plants that you find desirable. This state of the garden is considered to have very low entropy as this is not a naturally occurring situation and you have manufactured order. Now imagine you let a month go by without impacting the garden. Odds are some weeds have sprouted throughout the area as well as the grass having grown quite a bit. Perhaps some unkempt bushes stick out over your flowers, crushing some in the process. Entropy has brought the area closer to its neutral state (that of the original landscape, be it prairie, woodland, etc.). Now let a year or two go by, and you may have difficulty seeing any semblance of a garden existing in the first place. People equate entropy with chaos but it is more akin to natural decay, with order disturbing the balance.

This process is the easiest to imagine entropy with, but it goes much further than that. The true neutral state for the universe is… nothingness. Eventually the Sun will burn out, the Earth’s and all the planets’ cores will cool to absolute zero, and all atoms will cease to move. This is the fate of an expanding universe.

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