What happens to the entropy of a system when it undergoes an irreversible process?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What happens to the entropy of a system when it undergoes an irreversible process?
It decreases
It remains constant
It increases
It becomes zero
The entropy of a system increases when it undergoes an irreversible process.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
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Q
Q: What happens to the entropy of a system when it undergoes an irreversible process?
Solution: The entropy of a system increases when it undergoes an irreversible process.
Steps: 4
Step 1: Understand what entropy is. Entropy is a measure of disorder or randomness in a system.
Step 2: Know the difference between reversible and irreversible processes. A reversible process can go back to its original state without any changes, while an irreversible process cannot.
Step 3: Recognize that during an irreversible process, energy is often dispersed or spread out, leading to more disorder.
Step 4: Conclude that because the disorder increases during an irreversible process, the entropy of the system must also increase.
