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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.
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 ...
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 ...
Unlike temperature, the putative entropy of a living system would drastically change if the organism were thermodynamically isolated. If an organism was in this type of "isolated" situation, its entropy would increase markedly as the once-living components of the organism decayed to an unrecognizable mass. [11]
where is the total entropy change in the external thermal reservoirs (surroundings), is an infinitesimal amount of heat that is taken from the reservoirs and absorbed by the system (> if heat from the reservoirs is absorbed by the system, and < 0 if heat is leaving from the system to the reservoirs) and is the common temperature of the ...
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.
A system's entropy approaches a constant value as its temperature approaches absolute zero. a) Single possible configuration for a system at absolute zero, i.e., only one microstate is accessible. b) At temperatures greater than absolute zero, multiple microstates are accessible due to atomic vibration (exaggerated in the figure).
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.