I know that entropy means disorderliness but I just don't understand it in real life and am sure so many science students don't, the way they don't understand why in chemistry we have to convert to moles when calculating mass or volume of substances from a given reqction. I want to understand its real physical meaning so i can explain to a secondary school student. I do not want some memorised equations or explanations pls. I want to understand it....google is not really helping me. How is entropy used in thermo cycles. I am a 300Level chemistry student and honestly, even my lecturers don't really understand oe know it. They just keep refering me to text book definations.

Please tag monikers that you know are science based

Entropy is a mathematical way of visualising the spontaneity of a process. Generally, a process is spontaneous in the direction of "increasing entropy"...i.e, low entropy state tends towards one with higher entropy state.

To understand it, let's use a processe where physical changes occur to avoid complications. Consider the melting of ice for instance. When ice is exposed to atmospheric conditions, it melts. Common knowledge. The reverse is however not true (i.e liquid water to ice under same conditions) therefore it could be said that melting under atmospheric conditions is spontaneous because ice with lower entropy tended towards liquid water with a higher entropy. Detailed explanation will require the use use of clausius and boltmann's mathematical correlations which i am trying so hard to avoid but if u want to understand or explain how change in entropy determines spontaneity, then the water-ice example is your surest bet.

See entropy as "disorderness". It is easier to scatter a room than to arrange it. It requires less energy(mental effort) to scatter stuff than to arrange therefore we are often inclined to "increase" the entropy of our room... we could say scattering of room is spontaneous (since it takes little or no effort to do so). When u scatter the items in your appartment, it becomes a combinatorial problem since there is an increase in the number of ways to arrange it back...i.e increase in the probability of "fixing". This increase in probability translates to increase in entropy.

If you understand this then you should easily understand the various expressions for entropy as given in thermodynamics textbooks.

[quote austhor=DanXplore post=82051751]Entropy is a mathematical way of visualising the spontaneity of a process. Generally, a process is spontaneous in the direction of "increasing entropy"...i.e, low entropy state tends towards one with higher entropy state.

To understand it, let's use a processe where physical changes occur to avoid complications. Consider the melting of ice for instance. When ice is exposed to atmospheric conditions, it melts. Common knowledge. The reverse is however not true (i.e liquid water to ice under same conditions) therefore it could be said that melting under atmospheric conditions is spontaneous because ice with lower entropy tended towards liquid water with a higher entropy. Detailed explanation will require the use use of clausius and boltmann's mathematical correlations which i am trying so hard to avoid but if u want to understand or explain how change in entropy determines spontaneity, then the water-ice example is your surest bet.

See entropy as "disorderness". It is easier to scatter a room than to arrange it. It requires less energy(mental effort) to scatter stuff than to arrange therefore we are often inclined to "increase" the entropy of our room... we could say scattering of room is spontaneous (since it takes little or no effort to do so). When u scatter the items in your appartment, it becomes a combinatorial problem since there is an increase in the number of ways to arrange it back...i.e increase in the probability of "fixing". This increase in probability translates to increase in entropy.

If you understand this then you should easily understand the various expressions for entropy as given in thermodynamics textbooks.[/quote]

Wow! Like wow! You can teach. Thanks.

You should consider lecturing. Are you science or engineering?

Hmmn.

Who e epp?

projecttopics2:
This is serious

I don't get you

BlackHummer:
I know that entropy means disorderliness but I just don't understand it in real life and am sure so many science students don't, the way they don't understand why in chemistry we have to convert to moles when calculating mass or volume of substances from a given reqction. I want to understand its real physical meaning so i can explain to a secondary school student. I do not want some memorised equations or explanations pls. I want to understand it....google is not really helping me. How is entropy used in thermo cycles. I am a 300Level chemistry student and honestly, even my lecturers don't really understand oe know it. They just keep refering me to text book definations.

Please tag monikers that you know are science based

Checkout this link
https://googleweblight.com/i?u=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy&hl=pcm-NG

Entropy means the degree of disorderliness in a system.

Energy should be conserved but unfortunately its lost as heat.

Take for instance goat eats grass, man eats goat.

The total energy in the grass is not obtained by man because some are lost through heat by the goat, thus energy reduces along ecological pathways.

Another example is when you use flask to store hot water it retains the heat for long because its a closed system but if you use pot or bowl to store same hot water, it becomes cold after a short while as its an open system. Entropy here means degree of disorderliness as a result of loss through heat.

Finally in reversible reactions energy is conserved, any significant loss through heat would render the reaction irreversible and an increase in entropy.

Entropy is the reason why the present physical world has been sustained and its also the reason why the world will end one day.
Death comes because the human body through natural design becomes increasingly disorganized due to the effect of entropy.
Entropy is the force of destruction, it is the inherent characteristics of a system towards the path of increasing disorderliness.