Entropy is the tendency of systems to move from a higher to a lower state of organization at the molecular level. It affects diffusion, phase change, and location. Entropy is a mathematical measure of a change from higher to lower potential energy, related to the second law of thermodynamics. It measures how much energy is released into a system as it settles into the lowest potential energy, evaluating the amount of disorder.
Entropy describes the tendency of systems to move from a higher to a lower state of organization at the molecular level. In your daily life, you intuitively understand how entropy works every time you pour sugar into your coffee or melt an ice cube in a glass. Entropy can affect the space in which a substance diffuses, its phase change from solid to liquid to gas, or its location. In physics, entropy is a mathematical measure of a change from higher to lower potential energy, related to the second law of thermodynamics.
Entropy comes from a Greek word meaning “transformation.” This definition gives us an idea of why things apparently transform for no reason. Systems can maintain organization at the molecular level only as long as energy is added. For example, water will only boil as long as you keep a pan on the stove. You’re adding heat, a form of kinetic energy, to speed up the molecules in the water. If the heat source is removed, we can all imagine that the water will gradually cool down to room temperature. This is due to entropy, because water molecules tend to use up their stored potential energy, release heat, and end up with a lower potential energy.
Temperature is not the only transformation involved in entropy. Changes always involve the transition from disequilibrium to equilibrium, consistently with the transition to decreasing order. For example, molecules always diffuse to fill a container uniformly. When we drop food coloring into a glass of clear water, even if we don’t stir it, that united concentration of a drop will gradually widen until every part of the water has the same color density.
Another type of entropy that has to do with visible motion (as opposed to the invisible motion of heat) involves gravity. Unless we put energy into a system, such as an arm and a ball, supporting an object, it falls towards the ground. An elevated position has a higher potential energy. It is converted into kinetic energy of motion when the object falls. The object always ends up with the lowest possible potential energy position, such as resting on the floor.
In more technical terms, entropy is a specific value that measures how much energy is released into a system as it settles into the lowest potential energy. Entropy evaluates the amount of disorder, understood as a change in heat, from an earlier point to a later time. This must take place in a “closed” system, where there are no losses of energy either incoming or outgoing. In theory it can be measured, but in practice it is very difficult to create an absolutely closed scenario. In the food coloring example above, some of the food coloring solution may evaporate, a separate process from evenly distributing a solute.
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