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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 ...
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]
A substance at non-uniform temperature is at a lower entropy (than if the heat distribution is allowed to even out) and some of the thermal energy can drive a heat engine. A special case of entropy increase, the entropy of mixing, occurs when two or more different substances are mixed. If the substances are at the same temperature and pressure ...
This formulation does not mention heat and does not mention temperature, nor even entropy, and does not necessarily implicitly rely on those concepts, but it implies the content of the second law. A closely related statement is that "Frictional pressure never does positive work." [53] Planck wrote: "The production of heat by friction is ...
The entropy of mixing is one of these complex cases, when two or more different substances are mixed at the same temperature and pressure. There will be no net exchange of heat or work, so the entropy increase will be due to the literal spreading out of the motional energy of each substance in the larger combined final volume.
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.
The entropy of a given mass does not change during a process that is internally reversible and adiabatic. A process during which the entropy remains constant is called an isentropic process, written Δ s = 0 {\displaystyle \Delta s=0} or s 1 = s 2 {\displaystyle s_{1}=s_{2}} . [ 12 ]
At the same temperature, if the external magnetic field is strong, then the internal atoms in the salt would strongly align with the field, so the disorder (entropy) would decrease. Therefore, in Fig. 1, the curve for X 1 {\displaystyle X_{1}} is the curve for lower magnetic field, and the curve for X 2 {\displaystyle X_{2}} is the curve for ...