The Entropy Crisis

The entropy crisis refers to a theoretical problem in physics and chemistry where, at very low temperatures, the disorder (entropy) of a system cannot decrease indefinitely. In particular, it relates to the challenge of how glasses and amorphous materials form without reaching a perfectly ordered crystal, which would have zero entropy. The crisis suggests that if a supercooled liquid could cool without crystallizing, its entropy would approach a constant value at absolute zero, creating a paradox because it implies a residual entropy that conflicts with thermodynamic principles. This highlights fundamental questions about the nature of disorder and phase transitions in materials.