Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In thermodynamics, the thermodynamic free energy is one of the state functions of a thermodynamic system.The change in the free energy is the maximum amount of work that the system can perform in a process at constant temperature, and its sign indicates whether the process is thermodynamically favorable or forbidden.
Systems do not contain work, but can perform work, and likewise, in formal thermodynamics, systems do not contain heat, but can transfer heat. Informally, however, a difference in the energy of a system that occurs solely because of a difference in its temperature is commonly called heat , and the energy that flows across a boundary as a result ...
Examples are internal energy, enthalpy, Helmholtz free energy, Gibbs free energy, thermodynamic temperature, and entropy. For a given body, of a given chemical constitution, when its thermodynamic state has been fully defined by its pressure and volume, then its temperature is uniquely determined.
The central concept of thermodynamics is that of energy, the ability to do work. By the First Law, the total energy of a system and its surroundings is conserved. Energy may be transferred into a system by heating, compression, or addition of matter, and extracted from a system by cooling, expansion, or extraction of matter.
The first law of thermodynamics is essentially a definition of heat, i.e. heat is the change in the internal energy of a system that is not caused by a change of the external parameters of the system. However, the second law of thermodynamics is not a defining relation for the entropy.
Another way of looking at the theorem is to start with the definition of the Gibbs free energy (G), G = H - TS, where H stands for enthalpy. For a change from reactants to products at constant temperature and pressure the equation becomes Δ G = Δ H − T Δ S {\displaystyle \Delta G=\Delta H-T\Delta S} .
In thermodynamics, a spontaneous process is a process which occurs without any external input to the system. A more technical definition is the time-evolution of a system in which it releases free energy and it moves to a lower, more thermodynamically stable energy state (closer to thermodynamic equilibrium).
A quantitative treatment of the notion of energy quality rests on the definition of energy. According to the standard definition, Energy is a measure of the ability to do work. Work can involve the movement of a mass by a force that results from a transformation of energy. If there is an energy transformation, the second principle of energy ...