Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The concept of an isolated system can serve as a useful model approximating many real-world situations. It is an acceptable idealization used in constructing mathematical models of certain natural phenomena; e.g., the planets in the Solar System, and the proton and electron in a hydrogen atom are often treated as
Properties of isolated, closed, and open thermodynamic systems in exchanging energy and matter. A thermodynamic system is a body of matter and/or radiation separate from its surroundings that can be studied using the laws of thermodynamics.
For a simple system, mechanical isolation is equivalent to a state of constant volume and any process which occurs in such a simple system is said to be isochoric. [1] The opposite of a mechanically isolated system is a mechanically open system, [citation needed] which allows the transfer of mechanical energy. For a simple system, a ...
To maintain this constant entropy, any exchange of work energy with the environment must therefore be quasi-static in nature in order to ensure that the system remains essentially at equilibrium during the process. [1] The opposite of a thermally isolated system is a thermally open system, which allows the transfer of heat energy and entropy.
The split between system and environment is the analyst's choice, generally made to simplify the analysis. For example, the water in a lake, the water in half of a lake, or an individual molecule of water in the lake can each be considered a physical system. An isolated system is one that has
In statistical mechanics, the microcanonical ensemble is a statistical ensemble that represents the possible states of a mechanical system whose total energy is exactly specified. [1] The system is assumed to be isolated in the sense that it cannot exchange energy or particles with its environment, so that (by conservation of energy ) the ...
You must not speak of one isolated system but at least of two, which you may for the moment consider isolated from the rest of the world, but not always from each other." [99] The two systems are isolated from each other by the wall, until it is removed by the thermodynamic operation, as envisaged by the law. The thermodynamic operation is ...
In thermodynamics, a spontaneous process is a process which occurs without any external input to the system. A more technical definition is the time-evolution of a system in which it releases free energy and it moves to a lower, more thermodynamically stable energy state (closer to thermodynamic equilibrium).