Lab activities and exercises

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Kit usage tutorials

Protein Denaturation Kit

Exploring Entropy Single User Kit

Theory and Derivation of the Model System (for Entropy Kits)

Has an edible, 2D version of a demo similar to our first product:

Examples of how to improve instruction on entropy while not falling into teaching the misconceptions:

Simulation & Theory References

Computational simulations of principles and phenomena similar to our products:

Mathematical treatment of packing boundaries:

Philosophical References

Articulates subtleties surrounding “entropy” and shows relations among different entropy paradigms:

Possible explanation for simultaneously increasing entropy and order on a large scale:

As seen on Veritasium’s 2021 Science Communication Contest

Is “entropy” the same thing as “disorder”? Can increasing entropy lead to more visible order?

The second law of thermodynamics states that the total entropy change during any process is greater than or equal to zero. Unfortunately, there is a common misconception that this law dictates that disorder is always increasing in the universe. The reason for the misconception is that increasing entropy frequently does correlate with increasing disorder in daily life situations.

As this video points out, “entropy” is not a synonym for “disorder.” Under certain circumstances, increasing entropy can actually decrease disorder!

Notes for advanced viewers:

  • I used a very simplified definition of entropy for clarity. The formal definition is: Entropy = (Boltzmann’s constant)*ln(W) where “W” is the “number of ways” I mention.
  • The container is shaken to approximate a constant “temperature” system. If this demo was filmed with a slo-mo camera, we could see that the particles are rearranged while in motion; not because of the starting or stopping of the shaking. Put another way: both the entropy and structural order are increasing between every two frames while shaking.
  • In case it’s difficult to see, the container is shaken in all directions, which causes the average gravitational force on the dice to be (approximately) zero.