Entropic chaos factor
Quote from the book is:
“Apart from the fact that your not really a dyke. You’re probably bisexual. But most of all your sexual–you like sex and you don’t care about what gender. You’re an entropic chaos factor.”
What is entropic chaos factor? Please help.
Posted by aelli12 , 27 October 2009
4 comments on “Entropic chaos factor”
There is to my knowledge no such concept. It’s a pet name of Mimmi’s for Lisbeth. However, see wikipedia’s general article on entropy for an explanation of that concept:
“Temperature differences between thermodynamic systems in contact with each other tend to even out and that work can be obtained from these non-equilibrium differences, but that loss of heat occurs, in the form of entropy, when work is done.”
I think Mimmi is trying to say that Sally is just restless, with too much energy inside (including sexual energy).
Posted by chris from sallysfriends.net in Copenhagen ,
Entropy in the universe tends to increase. It is a concept from the theories of thermodynamics, and can be used as a measure of the disorder in a system – the higher the entropy the more the disorder. Living organisms break down from highly ordered structures when they die for instance. I can’t say I have ever got to grips with organic growth and the apparent violation of entropy but my clever physicist friends tell me it is a local aberration – ashes to ashes dust to dust!
Posted by Doug Hampson in Barry Wales UK ,
This term was also used in the recent Dan Brown book “The Lost Symbol”.
Posted by KL in Utah, USA ,
In physics entropy is a measure of energetic disorder. Disorder and chaos are quite similar in meaning, and entropy grows all the time (it can be reduced locally, yet it would cause even greater increase globally), so a poet could nickname one “a vector of energetic chaos”. The idea of entropy is that energy cannot be “compacted” and “structured” without wasting even more energy. E.g. when You burn gasoline it “releases” the heat to the atmosphere, and there is no way to put the energy into gasoline again. You can use the heat to store the energy, of course (e.g. as steam, electricity, etc.), yet it would be stored “locally”, while much more energy would be released “globally” in order to capture the small part of it. So – globally – entropy (or energetic “chaos”) is always growing. Due to this odd perk, entropy is perceived by casual people as a measure of decay and of a time-flow. So, when something – anything – is happening, it means the chaos grows, and entropy increases. Obviously, Salander acts a lot…
Posted by Rukasu in Warsaw ,