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where Q = motional energy ("heat") that is transferred reversibly to the system from the surroundings and T = the absolute temperature at which the transfer occurs. In the years to follow, Ludwig Boltzmann translated these 'alterations of arrangement' into a probabilistic view of order and disorder in gas-phase molecular systems.
The principle of minimum energy is essentially a restatement of the second law of thermodynamics. It states that for a closed system, with constant external parameters and entropy, the internal energy will decrease and approach a minimum value at equilibrium. External parameters generally means the volume, but may include other parameters which ...
Though the maximum entropy approach is based directly on informational entropy, it is applicable to physics only when there is a clear physical definition of entropy. There is no clear unique general physical definition of entropy for non-equilibrium systems, which are general physical systems considered during a process rather than ...
In a reversible or quasi-static, idealized process of transfer of energy as heat to a closed thermodynamic system of interest, (which allows the entry or exit of energy – but not transfer of matter), from an auxiliary thermodynamic system, an infinitesimal increment in the entropy of the system of interest is defined to result from an ...
The entropy change of a system excluding its surroundings can be well-defined as a small portion of heat transferred to the system during reversible process divided by the temperature of the system during this heat transfer: = The reversible process is quasistatic (i.e., it occurs without any dissipation, deviating only infinitesimally from the ...
The same is true for its entropy, so the entropy increase S 2 − S 1 of our system after one cycle is given by the reduction of entropy of the hot source and the increase of the cold sink. The entropy increase of the total system S 2 - S 1 is equal to the entropy production S i due to irreversible processes in the engine so
Because entropy is a state function, the change in entropy of the system is the same whether the process is reversible or irreversible. However, the impossibility occurs in restoring the environment to its own initial conditions. An irreversible process increases the total entropy of the system and its surroundings.
Thermodynamic entropy is measured as a change in entropy to a system containing a sub-system which undergoes heat transfer to its surroundings (inside the system of interest). It is based on the macroscopic relationship between heat flow into the sub-system and the temperature at which it occurs summed over the boundary of that sub-system.