Insights from ‘Entropy Theory’:
For a change to occur, you must apply more energy to the system than is extracted by the system.
Entropy is a scientific concept that’s often associated with disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of an isolated system left to evolve on its own cannot decrease over time. This means that entropy can only increase over time, and some processes are irreversible. However, there are some ways to decrease entropy, such as by knowing the microstate of a system.
The entropy of a mixture of two or more different particle types is greater than that of a pure substance.
Glossary
entropy: related to the total number of microstates and how systems spontaneously disperse energy rather than concentrate energy
Ludwig Boltzmanna: scientist that developed a molecular-scale statistical model that related the distribution of matter within a system as the number of microstates possible for the system
microstate: a specified configuration of a system’s particles and their respective locations and energies