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A closed system may exchange heat, experience forces, and exert forces, but does not exchange matter. An open system can interact with its surroundings by exchanging both matter and energy. The physical condition of a thermodynamic system at a given time is described by its state , which can be specified by the values of a set of thermodynamic ...
In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states of matter : solid , liquid , and gas , and in rare cases, plasma .
An adiabatic process is a process in which there is no matter or heat transfer, because a thermally insulating wall separates the system from its surroundings. For the process to be natural, either (a) work must be done on the system at a finite rate, so that the internal energy of the system increases; the entropy of the system increases even ...
In the words of Prigogine and Defay (1945): "It is a matter of experience that when we have specified a certain number of macroscopic properties of a system, then all the other properties are fixed." [ 58 ] [ 59 ] As noted above, according to A. Münster, the number of variables needed to define a thermodynamic equilibrium is the least for any ...
When matter is transferred into a system, the internal energy and potential energy associated with it are transferred into the new combined system. ( u Δ M ) i n = Δ U s y s t e m {\displaystyle \left(u\,\Delta M\right)_{\rm {in}}=\Delta U_{\rm {system}}} where u denotes the internal energy per unit mass of the transferred matter, as measured ...
This is how frost and hoar frost form on the ground or other surfaces. Another example is when frost forms on a leaf. For deposition to occur, thermal energy must be removed from a gas. When the air becomes cold enough, water vapour in the air surrounding the leaf loses enough thermal energy to change into a solid.
Planck (1914, page 40) [4] refers to a condition of thermodynamic equilibrium, in which "any two bodies or elements of bodies selected at random exchange by radiation equal amounts of heat with each other." The term radiative exchange equilibrium can also be used to refer to two specified regions of space that exchange equal amounts of ...
Thermal equilibrium, a state where an object and its surroundings cease to exchange energy in the form of heat, i.e. they are at the same temperature; Donnan equilibrium, the distribution of ion species between two ionic solutions separated by a semipermeable membrane or boundary