Imagine I have a box with 4 gas particles inside. Some of the concepts for this may be a bit confusing but bear with me, once you’ve got your head round it it’s not that bad.Ī phase space is just like a graph, but a point on this graph represents the whole state of a system. To get a more detailed picture of entropy we need to look at the concept of Phase Space. As it moves through the air however, some of the kinetic energy is distributed to the air particles so the total entropy of system has increased (the total energy is conserved however, due to the first law) If you have a ball flying through the air then it will start off with its energy organised i.e.As the particle move out and fill up the rest of the container then the entropy (disorder) increases. If all the molecules are in one corner then this would be a low entropy state (highly organised). Let’s say you have a container of gas molecules.

Essentially entropy is the measure of disorder and randomness in a system. It’s the core idea behind the second and third laws and shows up all over the place. Entropy and Phase SpaceĮntropy is a very important thing in the realm of thermodynamics. Third law of thermodynamics – As temperature approaches absolute zero, the entropy of a system approaches a constant minimum.īefore I go over these laws in more detail, it will be easier if I first introduce Entropy.

Second law of thermodynamics – The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.For a thermodynamic cycle the net heat supplied to the system equals the net work done by the system. In any process, the total energy of the universe remains the same. First law of thermodynamics – Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.Zeroth law of thermodynamics – If two thermodynamic systems are each in thermal equilibrium with a third, then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.) The most disorderly possibilities are also the most likely, with 20 out of 32 possibilities for the 3 heads and 2 tails and its reverse.There are 4 laws to thermodynamics, and they are some of the most important laws in all of physics. The most disorderly possibilities are 3 heads and 2 tails and its reverse. ) They are also the least likely, only 2 out of 32 possibilities. (They are more structured than the others. The two most orderly possibilities are 5 heads or 5 tails. Otherwise, the analysis will be erroneous. Note that all of these conclusions are based on the crucial assumption that each microstate is equally probable.

For example, 4 heads and 1 tail instance may occur on 5 different configurations, with any one of the 5 coins showing tail and all the rest heads. The following table shows all possibilities along with numbers of possible configurations (or microstate a detailed description of every element of a system). On the large scale, we are concerned only with the total heads and tails and not with the order in which heads and tails appear. What are the possible outcomes of tossing 5 coins? Each coin can land either heads or tails. This result, which has general validity, means that the total change in entropy for a system in any reversible process is zero.

Entropy is a measure of