Entropy
Entropy is a somewhat obscure quantity relating to the exchange of heat. The change in entropy for a quasistatic process is defined by1
Statistical thermodynamics reveals
where
Entropy is a quantity which increases during any Irreversible process. For a real process
Thermodynamic entropy postulates
In thermodynamics, the following properties are postulated:
- The entropy
is a well-defined quantity for equilibrium states as a function of the extensive parameters of a system, e.g.𝑆 .𝑆 = 𝑆 ( 𝐸 , 𝑉 , ⃗ 𝐍 ) - The entropy of a composite system is the sum of the entropies of its subsystems, i.e. entropy is an extensive parameter.
- In an infinitesimal quasistatic process the change in entropy is
.𝑑 𝑆 = đ 𝑄 / 𝑇 - Entropy maximum principle:2 For an isolated system, the entropy can never decrease, moreover if an internal constraint is removed, the final equilibrium state is that which maximizes entropy.
As a thermodynamic potential
Entropy
whence
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Footnotes
-
There is an implicit claim that
is an exact differential and hence the quantity𝑑 𝑆 is well-defined for an equilibrium state. For example, see Entropy of an ideal gas. ↩𝑆 -
Essentially the Second law of thermodynamics ↩