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Chapter: 11th Physics : UNIT 8 : Heat and Thermodynamics

Entropy and second law of thermodynamics

Entropy is also called ‘measure of disorder’. All natural process occur such that the disorder should always increases.

Entropy and second law of thermodynamics

 

We have seen in the equation (8.66) that the quantity QH/TT is equal to QL/TL. The quantity Q/T is called entropy. It is a very important thermodynamic property of a system. It is also a state variable. QH/TH  is the entropy received by the Carnot  engine  from hot reservoir and QL/TL is entropy given out by the Carnot engineL to the cold reservoir. For reversible engines (Carnot Engine) both entropies should be same, so that the change in entropy of the Carnot engine in one cycle is zero. This is proved in equation (8.66). But for all practical engines like diesel and petrol engines which are not reversible engines, they satisfy the relation QL/TL > QH/TH. In fact we can reformulate the second law of thermodynamics as follows

“For all the processes that occur in nature (irreversible process), the entropy always increases. For reversible process entropy will not change”. Entropy determines the direction in which natural process should occur.

We now come back to the question: Why does heat always flows from a state of higher temperature to one of lower temperature and not in the opposite direction? Because entropy increases when heat flows from hot object to cold object. If heat were to flow from a cold to a hot object, entropy will decrease leading to violation of second law thermodynamics.

Entropy is also called ‘measure of disorder’. All natural process occur such that the disorder should always increases.

Consider a bottle with a gas inside. When the gas molecules are inside the bottle it has less disorder. Once it spreads into the entire room it leads to more disorder. In other words when the gas is inside the bottle the entropy is less and once the gas spreads into entire room, the entropy increases. From the second law of thermodynamics, entropy always increases. If the air molecules go back in to the bottle, the entropy should decrease, which is not allowed by the second law of thermodynamics. The same explanation applies to a drop of ink diffusing into water. Once the drop of ink spreads, its entropy is increased. The diffused ink can never become a drop again. So the natural processes occur in such a way that entropy should increase for all irreversible process.

 

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11th Physics : UNIT 8 : Heat and Thermodynamics : Entropy and second law of thermodynamics |

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11th Physics : UNIT 8 : Heat and Thermodynamics


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