| ENTROPY and |
the Second Law of Thermodynamics! |
| Entropy and the second law of thermodynamics |
| The second law of thermodynamics is a tendency |
| Obstructions to the secondlaw make life possible |
| The second law of thermodynamics and evolution |
| Entropy and Gibbs free energy, ΔG = ΔH -TΔS |
These are five big ideas involving the second law of thermo. Questions about them came from readers of secondlaw.com. However, that Web site already has so many pages that this new site was written.
We’ll be talking about them in relaxed fashion but with the goal of developing a
sound qualitative understanding. (Equations will be minimized, except in the last section
about the Gibbs function.) No reader asked about two topics, so each is mostly
independent. Thus, there are some paragraphs that are repeated.
Chemistry students: If you're in a time bind or an exam is coming up, read students_approach.html for a shorter approach to understanding the second law and entropy.
| Frank L. Lambert, Professor
Emeritus Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041 Academic and professional biography entropy.lambert@gmail.com |
September 2012 |
Next page – "Entropy and the second law of thermodynamics" |