About
The character "熵" was formulated in the late 19th or early 20th century specifically to translate the Western physical concept of entropy into Chinese, with its structure combining the radical "火" indicating heat and the component "商" denoting quotient, a direct reference to the original thermodynamic formulation involving heat divided by temperature. Initially representing solely thermodynamic entropy, the meaning of "熵" later extended into other disciplines such as information theory, where it came to measure uncertainty or information content, while its written form, composed of "火" and "商", remained consistent.