Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A special case of entropy increase, the entropy of mixing, occurs when two or more different substances are mixed. If the substances are at the same temperature and pressure, there is no net exchange of heat or work – the entropy change is entirely due to the mixing of the different substances.
This local increase in order is, however, only possible at the expense of an entropy increase in the surroundings; here more disorder must be created. [9] [15] The conditioner of this statement suffices that living systems are open systems in which both heat, mass, and or work may transfer into or out of the system. Unlike temperature, the ...
The entropy of the room has decreased. However, the entropy of the glass of ice and water has increased more than the entropy of the room has decreased. In an isolated system, such as the room and ice water taken together, the dispersal of energy from warmer to cooler regions always results in a net increase in entropy. Thus, when the system of ...
While the second law, and thermodynamics in general, accurately predicts the intimate interactions of complex physical systems, scientists are not content with simply knowing how a system behaves, they also want to know why it behaves the way it does. The question of why entropy increases until equilibrium is reached was answered in 1877 by ...
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 term "entropy" has been in use from early in the history of classical thermodynamics, and with the development of statistical thermodynamics and quantum theory, entropy changes have been described in terms of the mixing or "spreading" of the total energy of each constituent of a system over its particular quantized energy levels.
The surroundings will maximize its entropy given its newly acquired energy, which is equivalent to the energy having been transferred as heat. Since the potential energy of the system is now at a minimum with no increase in the energy due to heat of either the marble or the bowl, the total energy of the system is at a minimum.
However, in the thermodynamic limit (i.e. in the limit of infinitely large system size), the specific entropy (entropy per unit volume or per unit mass) does not depend on . The entropy is thus a measure of the uncertainty about exactly which quantum state the system is in, given that we know its energy to be in some interval of size δ E ...