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Quinn Culver
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Why is the letter "h" (or "H") used to denote entropy in information theory and, ergodic theory, and physics (and possibly other places)?

Edit: I'm looking for an explanation of the original use of "H". As Ilmari Karonen points out, Shannon got "H" from Boltzmann's H-theorem. So (assuming Boltzmann actually used "H"), the original use is at least as early as that.

Why is the letter "h" (or "H") used to denote entropy in information theory and ergodic theory?

Why is the letter "h" (or "H") used to denote entropy in information theory, ergodic theory, and physics (and possibly other places)?

Edit: I'm looking for an explanation of the original use of "H". As Ilmari Karonen points out, Shannon got "H" from Boltzmann's H-theorem. So (assuming Boltzmann actually used "H"), the original use is at least as early as that.

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Quinn Culver
  • 4.7k
  • 2
  • 31
  • 51

Why is "h" used for entropy?

Why is the letter "h" (or "H") used to denote entropy in information theory and ergodic theory?