Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal empirical observation concerning heat and energy interconversions.A simple statement of the law is that heat always flows spontaneously from hotter to colder regions of matter (or 'downhill' in terms of the temperature gradient).
A prime example of this irreversibility is the transfer of heat by conduction or radiation. It was known long before the discovery of the notion of entropy that when two bodies, initially of different temperatures, come into direct thermal connection, then heat immediately and spontaneously flows from the hotter body to the colder one.
Such spontaneous heat transfer always occurs from a region of high temperature to another region of lower temperature, as described in the second law of thermodynamics. Heat convection occurs when the bulk flow of a fluid (gas or liquid) carries its heat through the fluid. All convective processes also move heat partly by diffusion, as well.
A traditional version of the second law of thermodynamics states: Heat does not spontaneously flow from a colder body to a hotter body. The second law refers to a system of matter and radiation, initially with inhomogeneities in temperature, pressure, chemical potential, and other intensive properties , that are due to internal 'constraints ...
At the heat source of a system of natural circulation, the heated fluid becomes lighter than the fluid surrounding it, and thus rises. At the heat sink, the nearby fluid becomes denser as it cools, and is drawn downward by gravity. Together, these effects create a flow of fluid from the heat source to the heat sink and back again.
Heat spontaneously flows along a temperature gradient (i.e. from a hotter body to a colder body). For example, heat is conducted from the hotplate of an electric stove to the bottom of a saucepan in contact with it.
The molar heat capacity is the heat capacity per unit amount (SI unit: mole) of a pure substance, and the specific heat capacity, often called simply specific heat, is the heat capacity per unit mass of a material. Heat capacity is a physical property of a substance, which means that it depends on the state and properties of the substance under ...
When ΔS < 0 and ΔH > 0, the process is never spontaneous, but the reverse process is always spontaneous. When ΔS > 0 and ΔH > 0, the process will be spontaneous at high temperatures and non-spontaneous at low temperatures. When ΔS < 0 and ΔH < 0, the process will be spontaneous at low temperatures and non-spontaneous at high temperatures.