The concept of information entropy was introduced by Claude Shannon in his 1948 paper “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”, and is also referred to as Shannon entropy. As an example, consider a biased coin with probability p of landing on heads and probability 1 − p of landing on tails.

What is entropy and its symbol?

The symbol for entropy is an S. The symbol was decided upon by Rudolf Clausius, a German physicist, in the late 1800s.

What is the unit of entropy S?

EntropyCommon symbolsSSI unitjoules per kelvin (J⋅K−1)In SI base unitskg⋅m2⋅s−2⋅K−1