When is entropy increasing

My daughter did thermodynamics as a chemist and such family discussions as you can have about entropy showed how little common ground we had. Next time we meet it will be fun to be able to talk about her world, to see how she explains things again and relate it to this course.

So yes, an enjoyable and instructive course but you do have to go with the flow, take what you are told on trust, let it soak in and let your world view evolve. Category: FutureLearn Local. Category: FutureLearn Local , Learning. We offer a diverse selection of courses from leading universities and cultural institutions from around the world.

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Learn more about this course. What increases entropy? Great course 20 Apr, In 3 weeks the fundamentals of thermodynamics. Fantastic course. Visit the course. The system entropy S by the modern definition is the amount of energy dispersal in a system. Entropy S by the modern definition is the amount of energy dispersal in a system.

Therefore, the system entropy will increase when the amount of motion within the system increases. For example, the entropy increases when ice solid melts to give water liquid. It will even increase more when water is evaporated to steam gas. When we use the symbol delta , it stands for the change.

Delta T would be the change in temperature the original temperature subtracted from the final. Affecting Entropy Several factors affect the amount of entropy in a system.

If you increase temperature, you increase entropy. This one is also easy to visualize. If an atom has more space to bounce around, it will bounce more. Gases and plasmas have large amounts of entropy when compared to liquids and solids.

The entropy is decreasing because a gas is becoming a liquid. The entropy is increasing because a gas is being produced and the number of molecules is increasing. The entropy is decreasing because four total reactant molecules are forming two total product molecules. All are gases. The entropy is decreasing because a solid is formed from aqueous reactants.

The entropy change is unknown but likely not zero , because there are equal numbers of molecules on both sides of the equation, and all are gases. Entropy There is a tendency in nature for systems to proceed toward a state of greater disorder or randomness.

For a given substance, the entropy of the liquid state is greater than the entropy of the solid state.