The Most Misunderstood Concept in Physics

I've posted about entropy before in videos from Steve Mould and Alpha Phoenix. Here Dr Derek takes his turn at tilting at the same windmill: entropy.

The video is a bit long at nearly half an hour, but it's a nice mixture of historical development of the theory of entropy and modern, statistical understanding of entropy's effect on the direction of time in our universe. 

I kind of like Steve's video a bit more, but Dr Derek's video is good, as well.

A better description of entropy

I open my discussion of entropy in AP chemistry by saying that I'm going to offer an incorrect definition of entropy, that it's the same incorrect definition I was taught in high school and that my students will likely be told in college - as I was - that the high school definition isn't correct...that it's a drastic simplification.

I've said this for years, and I've had other people who study chemistry in college confirm that same story having happened to them, too.

I also will admit that I tried to read PF Atkins's The Second Law without much success.

So, let's try to be a little more precise and correct by watching Steve Mould's video up above - it's a video explaining how a Sterling engine works - and try to be better about what entropy really is.