Surprisal

{
  "id": "MLC-T-CHM-011685",
  "term": "Surprisal",
  "field": "Chemistry",
  "definition": "A quantitative measure of the deviation of an observed probability distribution from a prior, usually statistical, distribution in a chemical process. It is expressed as the negative logarithm of the ratio of the observed probability to the prior probability. A positive surprisal indicates that the observed outcome is less probable than expected statistically.",
  "subject": "Physical and Biophysical Chemistry",
  "see_also": [
    "prior distribution"
  ],
  "references": [
    "PAC, 1996, 68, 149. 'A glossary of terms used in chemical kinetics, including reaction dynamics (IUPAC Recommendations 1996)' on page 188 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199668010149)"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/chemistry/surprisal/"
}