# Entropy Preserving Functions

Let F be a deterministic compression function that takes fixed length 128 bit inputs and outputs 8 bits. Each input to the function has 128 bits of entropy, does that mean that the output byte has 128 bits of entropy ?

• No, it's not possible to have 128 bits of entropy in 8 bits of data. 01011001 and 01011001 are identical, regardless of how random the data was before fed into your compression function. – MechMK1 Mar 26 at 13:39
• How does the original entropy "disappear" when the 128 bits are distilled down to eight, can you formalize that into an answer ? – William Hird Mar 26 at 13:51
• No, because poncho's answer already covers that pretty well. The idea is that X bits can never have more entropy than X bits. – MechMK1 Mar 26 at 14:00
• Entropy is not something that "appears" or "disappears". Entropy is a property of a probability distribution. Which is also why the statement "Each input to the function has 128 bits of entropy" is nonsensical. An individual value has no entropy. The distribution it is drawn from does. – Maeher Mar 26 at 14:01
• OK, thank you. Information Theory 101 :-) – William Hird Mar 26 at 14:03