Entropy and Tropes

In the mid-1800's, Clausius described entropy, the differential of which described how thermodynamic processes transform a system's ability to do useful work. He coined the term from the Greek word τροπη (trope) which means "transformation". Over time, entropy would be connected to ensembles and microstates, information theory, blackbody radiation, and black holes. Coming full circle, this transformation of Clausius' entropy to these new scenarios are tropes, rhetorical relationships that turn theory and help us understand phenomena in new ways. In this talk, I will share my observations from interdisciplinary research with a scholar of rhetoric. Using the troping of entropy as a case study, we notice an interesting conclusion: physicists trope.