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In thermodynamics, a parameter representing the state of disorder of a system at the atomic, ionic, or molecular level; the greater the disorder the higher the entropy. [6] A measure of disorder in the universe or of the unavailability of the energy in a system to do work. [7] Entropy and disorder also have associations with equilibrium. [8]
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 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?
Although entropy does increase in the model of an expanding universe, the maximum possible entropy rises much more rapidly, moving the universe further from the heat death with time, not closer. [ 97 ] [ 98 ] [ 99 ] This results in an "entropy gap" pushing the system further away from the posited heat death equilibrium. [ 100 ]
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.
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.
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 . Deriving the fundamental thermodynamic relation from first principles thus amounts to proving that the above definition of entropy implies that for reversible processes we have:
As the pressure is reduced still further, a pressure is reached that result in M = 1 at the throat with subsonic flow throughout the remainder of the nozzle. There is another receiver pressure substantially below that of curve C that also results in isentropic flow throughout the nozzle, represented by curve D; after the throat the flow is ...