Meeting – Summer school Physics and Philosophy, 25 – 27 August 2021

Summer School on Entropy

This School is addressed to persons interested in the discussion of one of the most important concepts of physics – entropy. Among the lecturers are some of the leading scientists and philosophers in the field.

Entropy first appeared through the second principle of thermodynamics and is related to the question of the arrow of time. Although entropy is a standard notion in the curriculum of scientific and technical fields, there are still deep disagreements about its fundamental meaning. Several questions will be raised:

• Do thermodynamic, statistical and information entropy correspond to the same thing?
• What is the relation between them?
• Does is make sense to characterize entropy as a measure of disorder? Does it cover all possible situations?
• Entropy is a measurable quantity, related to other macroscopic quantities. Is it enough to know how to measure it, to understand what it is?
• Where does the confusion related to the notion of entropy come from?

Entropy has played a crucial role in the emergence of quantum physics, in relation to the problem of the application of statistical mechanics to black-body radiation, particularly the principle of equipartition of energy. In the resolution of this problem by Planck and Einstein entropy played a leading role. And finally: How can entropy be related to other fields of knowledge, outside of natural sciences? These are some of the questions which will be addressed in this Summer School.

Scientific Committee:

• Ivica Aviani (University of Split)
• Dragan Poljak (University of Split)
• Franjo Sokolić (University of Split)
• Larisa Zoranić (University of Split)

Organizing Committee: Mate Jagnjić, Matko Maleš, Martina Požar and Nikolina Vučković