quality:corruption, structural:reformatting
Information theory

Most researchers consider information entropy and thermodynamic entropy directly linked to the same concept, while others argue that they are distinct. Both expressions are mathematically similar. If W {\textstyle W} is the number of microstates that can yield a given macrostate, and each microstate has the same a priori probability, then that probability is p = 1 / W {\textstyle p=1/W}. The Shannon entropy (in nats) is: H = − ∑ i = 1 W p i ln p i = ln W {\displaystyle H=-\sum _{i=1}^{W}{p_{i}\ln {p_{i}}}=\ln {W}} and if entropy is measured in units of k {\textstyle k} per nat, then the entropy is given by: H = k ln W {\displaystyle H=k\ln {W}} which is the Boltzmann entropy formula, where k {\textstyle k} is the Boltzmann constant, which may be interpreted as the thermodynamic entropy per nat. Some authors argue for dropping the word entropy for the H {\textstyle H} function of information theory and using Shannon's other term, "uncertainty", instead.