Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Since an entropy is a state function, the entropy change of the system for an irreversible path is the same as for a reversible path between the same two states. [22] However, the heat transferred to or from the surroundings is different as well as its entropy change. We can calculate the change of entropy only by integrating the above formula.
Entropy changes for systems in a canonical state A system with a well-defined temperature, i.e., one in thermal equilibrium with a thermal reservoir, has a probability of being in a microstate i given by Boltzmann's distribution .
Owing to these early developments, the typical example of entropy change ΔS is that associated with phase change. In solids, for example, which are typically ordered on the molecular scale, usually have smaller entropy than liquids, and liquids have smaller entropy than gases and colder gases have smaller entropy than hotter gases.
This is possible provided the total entropy change of the system plus the surroundings is positive as required by the second law: ΔS tot = ΔS + ΔS R > 0. For the three examples given above: 1) Heat can be transferred from a region of lower temperature to a higher temperature in a refrigerator or in a heat pump. These machines must provide ...
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 ...
Because entropy is a state function, the change in entropy of the system is the same whether the process is reversible or irreversible. However, the impossibility occurs in restoring the environment to its own initial conditions. An irreversible process increases the total entropy of the system and its surroundings.
The entropy of the surrounding room decreases less than the entropy of the ice and water increases: the room temperature of 298 K is larger than 273 K and therefore the ratio, (entropy change), of δQ / 298 K for the surroundings is smaller than the ratio (entropy change), of δQ / 273 K for the ice and water system. This is ...
Figure 1. A thermodynamic model system. Differences in pressure, density, and temperature of a thermodynamic system tend to equalize over time. For example, in a room containing a glass of melting ice, the difference in temperature between the warm room and the cold glass of ice and water is equalized by energy flowing as heat from the room to the cooler ice and water mixture.