entropy

Examples of entropy in the following topics:

• Struggle against entropy

• The Second Law of Thermodynamics

  • High entropy means high disorder and low energy. 
  • Therefore, water can be said to have greater entropy than ice.
  • Entropy changes also occur in chemical reactions.
  • Entropy is a measure of randomness or disorder in a system.
  • Gases have higher entropy than liquids, and liquids have higher entropy than solids.

• Water’s Solvent Properties

  • This change in the hydrogen-bonding pattern of the water solvent causes the system's overall entropy to greatly decrease, as the molecules become more ordered than in liquid water.
  • Thermodynamically, such a large decrease in entropy is not spontaneous, and the hydrophobic molecule will not dissolve.

• Free Energy

  • Recall that according to the second law of thermodynamics, all energy transfers involve the loss of some amount of energy in an unusable form such as heat, resulting in entropy.
  • Gibbs free energy specifically refers to the energy associated with a chemical reaction that is available after accounting for entropy.
  • To calculate ∆G, subtract the amount of energy lost to entropy (denoted as ∆S) from the total energy change of the system.
  • In this way, living organisms are in a constant energy-requiring, uphill battle against equilibrium and entropy.

• Transferring of Energy between Trophic Levels

  • The main reason for this loss is the second law of thermodynamics, which states that whenever energy is converted from one form to another, there is a tendency toward disorder (entropy) in the system.