Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The relationship between entropy, order, and disorder in the Boltzmann equation is so clear among physicists that according to the views of thermodynamic ecologists Sven Jorgensen and Yuri Svirezhev, "it is obvious that entropy is a measure of order or, most likely, disorder in the system."
Entropy is one of the few quantities in the physical sciences that require a particular direction for time, sometimes called an arrow of time. As one goes "forward" in time, the second law of thermodynamics says, the entropy of an isolated system can increase, but not decrease. Thus, entropy measurement is a way of distinguishing the past from ...
The question of why entropy increases until equilibrium is reached was answered in 1877 by physicist Ludwig Boltzmann. The theory developed by Boltzmann and others is known as statistical mechanics. Statistical mechanics explains thermodynamics in terms of the statistical behavior of the atoms and molecules which make up the system.
The applicability of a second law of thermodynamics is limited to systems in or sufficiently near equilibrium state, so that they have defined entropy. [43] Some inhomogeneous systems out of thermodynamic equilibrium still satisfy the hypothesis of local thermodynamic equilibrium, so that entropy density is locally defined as an intensive ...
The same is true for its entropy, so the entropy increase S 2 − S 1 of our system after one cycle is given by the reduction of entropy of the hot source and the increase of the cold sink. The entropy increase of the total system S 2 - S 1 is equal to the entropy production S i due to irreversible processes in the engine so
The entropy of mixing is one of these complex cases, when two or more different substances are mixed at the same temperature and pressure. There will be no net exchange of heat or work, so the entropy increase will be due to the literal spreading out of the motional energy of each substance in the larger combined final volume.
Despite the foregoing, there is a difference between the two quantities. The information entropy Η can be calculated for any probability distribution (if the "message" is taken to be that the event i which had probability p i occurred, out of the space of the events possible), while the thermodynamic entropy S refers to thermodynamic probabilities p i specifically.
The internal energy of an ideal gas depends only on its temperature, and not on the volume of its containing box, so it is not an energy effect that tends to increase the volume of the box as gas pressure does. This implies that the pressure of an ideal gas has an entropic origin. [5] What is the origin of such an entropic force?