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Physical Significance of Entropy

Entropy is a real physical quantity that represents the unavailable or unusable energy within a substance based on its state, such as pressure, temperature, and volume. It quantifies the amount of energy that cannot be converted into useful work. Entropy increases as disorder or randomness increases, such as when a gas expands or when a substance is heated or cooled through a phase change. Entropy provides insight into the structural changes that occur during physical and chemical processes as the system transitions between more ordered and less ordered states.

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4K views2 pages

Physical Significance of Entropy

Entropy is a real physical quantity that represents the unavailable or unusable energy within a substance based on its state, such as pressure, temperature, and volume. It quantifies the amount of energy that cannot be converted into useful work. Entropy increases as disorder or randomness increases, such as when a gas expands or when a substance is heated or cooled through a phase change. Entropy provides insight into the structural changes that occur during physical and chemical processes as the system transitions between more ordered and less ordered states.

Uploaded by

VIKRAM KUMAR
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Physical significance of Entropy

The entropy of a substance is real physical quantity and is a definite function of the state
of the body like pressure, temperature, volume of internal energy.

It is difficult to form a tangible conception of this quantity because it can not be felt like
temperature or pressure. We can, however, readily infer it from the following aspects:

1. Entropy and unavailable energy

The second law of thermodynamics tells us that whole amount of internal energy of any
substance is not convertible into useful work. A portion of this energy which is used for
doing useful work is called available energy. The remaining part of the energy which
cannot be converted into useful work is called unavailable energy. Entropy is a
measure of this unavailable energy. In fact, the entropy may be regarded as the
unavailable energy per unit temperature.

I.e.

or, 

The concept of entropy is of great -value and it provides the information regarding
structural changes accompanying a given process.

2.  Entropy and disorder

Entropy is a measure of the disorder or randomness in the system. When a gas expands
into vacuum, water flows out of a reservoir, spontaneous chain reaction takes place, an
increase in the disorder occurs and therefore entropy increases.

Similarly, when a substance is heated or cooled there is also a change in entropy. Thus


increase in entropy implies a transition from on ordered to a less ordered state of affair.

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