> Do you mean this even when "entropy" is used in the context of information > theory? > Gustavo
No, Claude Shannon's http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/paper.html usage, to separate noise from information, regards statistical entropy, a measure of dispersion, a different meaning from theormodynamic entropy, which was the environmental question. From http://www.csu.edu.au/ci/vol03/finalst3/node3.html#SECTION00030000000000000000 "The entropy is a property of a distribution over a discrete set of symbols. It is strongly sensitive to the number or variety of the symbols and less so to their relative probabilities of occurrence. The entropy of the sequence has a number of equivalent interpretations. It is a measure of the complexity of the random process that generates the sequence. It is the length of shortest binary description of the states of the random variable that generates the sequence, so it is the size of the most compressed description of the sequence. It is the number of binary questions that need to be asked (20 questions style) to determine the sequence. It also measures the average surprise, or information gain, occasioned by the receipt of a symbol. In other words, the entropy measures the complexity or variety of the random variable that underlies a process." Fred Foldvary ===== [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/
