ergodic

English

Etymology

International Scientific Vocabulary ergo- +‎ -ode (+ -ic). The etymological origin is disputed: ἔργον (érgon) +‎ ὁδός (hodós, “way”) versus ἔργον (érgon) +‎ εἶδος (eîdos, “image”).[1][2]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ɜɹˈɡɑdɪk/, /ɜɹˈɡoʊdɪk/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Adjective

ergodic (comparative more ergodic, superlative most ergodic)

  1. (mathematics, physics) Of or relating to certain systems that, given enough time, will eventually return to a previously experienced state.
    • 2020, Brian Christian, quoting Jan Leike, “Conclusion”, in The Alignment Problem, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, →ISBN:
      “The real world is not ergodic,” he says. “If I jump out of the window, that's it–it's not, like, a mistake I will learn from.”
  2. (statistics, engineering) Of or relating to a process in which every sequence or sample of sufficient size is equally representative of the whole.
  3. (literature, information science) Of or relating to a literary work that requires nontrivial effort on the reader's part to traverse.
    • 2012, Markku Eskelinen, Cybertext Poetics:
      Therefore this chapter moves into two directions, cybertextually expanding (and reorganizing) the field of architextuality, and specifying the ergodic variety within it.

Derived terms

Translations

References
  1. Uffink, Jos (2017) “Boltzmann's Work in Statistical Physics”, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy‎
  2. Gallavotti, Giovanni (1995) “Ergodicity, ensembles, irreversibility in Boltzmann and beyond.”, in Journal of Statistical Physics‎, volume 78, pages 1571--1589

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