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In terms of energy flow, the movement from a magnetically aligned state requires energy from the thermal motion of the molecules, converting thermal energy into magnetic energy. [24] Yet, according to the second law of thermodynamics , because no heat can enter or leave the container, due to its adiabatic insulation, the system should exhibit ...
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 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.
In a stationary state, the production of entropy inside a thermodynamic system with constant external parameters is minimal and constant. If the system is not in a stationary state, then it will change until the entropy production rate, or, in other words, the dissipative function of the system, takes the smallest value.
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.
It is in this sense that entropy is a measure of the energy in a system that cannot be used to do work. An irreversible process degrades the performance of a thermodynamic system, designed to do work or produce cooling, and results in entropy production. The entropy generation during a reversible process is zero. Thus entropy production is a ...
Here S is the entropy of the system; T k is the temperature at which the heat enters the system at heat flow rate ˙; ˙ = ˙ = ˙ represents the entropy flow into the system at position k, due to matter flowing into the system (˙, ˙ are the molar flow rate and mass flow rate and S mk and s k are the molar entropy (i.e. entropy per unit ...
Energy quality is a measure of the ease with which a form of energy can be converted to useful work or to another form of energy: i.e. its content of thermodynamic free energy. A high quality form of energy has a high content of thermodynamic free energy, and therefore a high proportion of it can be converted to work; whereas with low quality ...